TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE 
IN  THE  CHICAGO  SCHOOLS 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


Bgenta 


THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  COMPANY 

HEW  TOEK 

THK  CUNNINGHAM,  CURTISS  &  WELCH  COMPANY 

LOS  ASSKLtS 

THE  CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

LONDON  ADD  EDINBURCIH 

THE  MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 

TOKYO,  OSAKA,    KIOTO,  fCKUOKA,  SENDAI 

THE  MISSION  BOOK  COMPANY 

SHANGHAI 

KARLW.  HIERSEMANN 


TRUANCY 
AND  NON-ATTENDANCE 

IN  THE 

CHICAGO  SCHOOLS 

A  STUDY  OF  THE  SOCIAL   ASPECTS  OF  THE  COM- 

PULSORY EDUCATION  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

LEGISLATION  OF  ILLINOIS 


SOPHONISBA  P.  BRECKINRIDGE,  PH.D. 

Members  of  the  Faculty  of  the  University  of  Chicago  and  of  the 

Chicago  School  of  Civics  and  Philanthropy 
Authors  of  '  '  The  Delinquent  Child  and  the  Home"  ' 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


COPYRIGHT  1917  BY 
THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Published  January  1917 


Composed  and  Printed  By 

The  University  of  Chicago  Press 

Chicago,  Illinois,  U.S.A. 


TO 

JANE  ADDAMS 

GUIDE  AND   FRIEND 


jl  733016 


PREFACE 

This  study  of  the  truant  and  non-attending  school  children 
of  Chicago  was  begun  as  a  continuation  of  an  inquiry  into  the 
care  of  the  wards  of  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Cook  County,  which 
we  undertook  some  years  ago  in  the  Department  of  Social 
Investigation  of  the  Chicago  School  of  Civics  and  Philanthropy. 
A  study  of  the  delinquent  children  of  the  court  was  published 
four  years  ago1  and  it  was  planned  to  follow  that  volume  with 
similar  studies  of  the  truant  and  the  dependent  children  who 
also  come  before  the  Chicago  Court. 

The  present  volume,  however,  has  taken  us  beyond  the 
juvenile  court  children  with  whom  we  began.  A  study  of 
truant  children,  which  was  planned  as  the  second  volume  in  a 
juvenile  court  series,  led  us  into  the  larger  problem  of  school 
attendance,  for  it  was  apparent  that  a  study  of  truancy  would 
be  of  little  value  without  an  inquiry  into  the  broader  questions 
of  non-attendance  during  the  compulsory-attendance  period  and 
the  enforcement  of  the  child  labor  laws  which  should  protect 
the  children  who  are  near  the  age  when  the  required  period  of 
school  attendance  comes  to  an  end. 

Thirty-three  years  have  passed  since  the  principle  of  com- 
pulsory school  attendance  was  adopted  in  the  state  of  Illinois 
by  the  passing  of  the  first  "Act  to  secure  to  children  the  benefit 
of  an  elementary  education."  The  following  chapters  show 
how  slow  we  were  to  adopt  this  principle  and  how  reluctantly, 
after  it  was  adopted,  the  local  educational  authorities  of  the 
various  cities,  towns,  and  counties  to  whom  its  enforcement  was 

1  See  The  Delinquent  Child  and  the  Home:  A  Study  of  the  Delinquent 
Wards  of  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Chicago,  New  York,  Russell  Sage  Foun- 
dation, 1912. 


viii  PREFACE 

intrusted,  proceeded  to  act  under  it.  Experience  has  taught  us 
that  almost  any  form  of  social  legislation  that  is  left  to  be 
enforced  by  a  multitude  of  independent  local  authorities  will  be 
brought  slowly  to  its  promised  usefulness.  Unfortunately  it 
was  not  possible  for  us  to  extend  our  study  far  beyond  the  limits 
of  Chicago.  Chaps,  xvii  and  xviii,  however,  throw  some  light 
on  the  present  compulsory-attendance  situation  throughout 
the  state  and  raise  once  again  the  question  whether  a  state 
educational  authority — commission  or  bureau — should  not  be 
created  with  the  power  of  supervising  the  work  of  the  local 
authorities  in  the  enforcement  of  the  state  school  laws. 

Some  criticism  may  fall  to  our  lot  because  we  have  ventured 
to  write  of  educational  matters  connected  with  the  Chicago 
public-school  system  when  we  have  never  had  any  connection 
with  the  Chicago  schools.  Our  excuse  must  be  that  such  a 
book  obviously  could  not  be  written  by  those  inside  the  school 
system.  A  further  excuse  which  should  perhaps  be  offered  is 
that  for  nearly  a  decade  we  have  been  closely  connected  with  the 
social  agencies  of  Chicago  and  that  this  study  deals  only  with 
the  social  aspects  of  school  problems.  It  is  our  belief  that  there 
should  be  a  closer  co-operation  between  the  schools  and  those 
who  call  themselves  "social  workers"  in  all  our  large  cities;  for, 
after  all,  the  teachers  in  our  elementary  schools  should  form  the 
largest  body  of  social  workers  in  every  depressed  and  congested 
district  where  there  is  a  field  for  social  work. 

In  the  course  of  collecting  material  for  this  inquiry  we  have 
incurred  many  obligations  which  we  can  acknowledge  only  col- 
lectively. To  the  members  of  the  Chicago  school  system,  the 
Department  of  Compulsory  Education,  the  Chicago  Parental 
School,  and  the  Chicago  Juvenile  Court  we  are  greatly  indebted 
for  information  cheerfully  given  in  response  to  many  tedious 
inquiries.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  express  here  our  deep  apprecia- 
tion of  the  generous  co-operation  which  was  given  by  Judge 
Merritt  W.  Pinckney,  of  the  Chicago  Juvenile  Court,  and  by 


PREFACE  ix 

Mrs.  Ella  Flagg  Young,  who  for  five  years,  never  to  be  forgotten 
by  those  interested  in  educational  progress,  was  superintendent 
of  the  Chicago  public  schools.  Although  they  had  no  part  in 
suggesting,  planning,  or  directing  this  inquiry,  they  both  wel- 
comed any  attempt,  honestly  made,  to  obtain  information 
regarding  the  working  of  the  great  institutions  which  are  main- 
tained for  the  poorest  and  most  friendless  of  the  children  of 
Chicago. 

We  must  also  express  our  appreciation  to  our  friend  and 
former  colleague  at  Hull-House  and  the  School  of  Civics  and 
Philanthropy,  Miss  Julia  C.  Lathrop,  now  chief  of  the  Federal 
Children's  Bureau.  Miss  Lathrop  read  the  entire  manuscript, 
and  we  are  indebted  to  her  for  valuable  suggestions.  It  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  say,  however,  that  no  one  of  the  persons 
mentioned  has  the  smallest  responsibility  for  any  of  the  opinions 
expressed  in  these  pages. 

To  our  friends  in  the  social  agencies  of  Chicago,  especially 
the  Immigrants'  Protective  League,  the  Vocational  Supervision 
Bureau,  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association,  and  the  United 
Charities,  we  are  deeply  indebted.  Through  their  experience, 
working  as  they  do  day  after  day  and  year  after  year  with  the 
families  of  the  children  that  the  compulsory  education  and 
child  labor  laws  were  designed  to  protect,  they  have  an  invalu- 
able store  of  information  regarding  the  administration  of 
these  laws,  and  this  experience  they  have  generously  shared 
with  us. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  explain  that  this  study,  like  the  earlier 
juvenile  court  investigation,  has  been  carried  on  with  the 
assistance  of  students  in  the  Department  of  Social  Investiga- 
tion of  the  School  of  Civics  and  Philanthropy.  It  is  unfortu- 
nately not  possible  to  mention  by  name  all  the  students  who 
have  had  some  share  in  the  work.  Special  acknowledgment 
must,  however,  be  made  of  the  work  of  Miss  Grace  P.  Norton 
(now  Mrs.  Lorenz),  Miss  Natalie  Walker,  Miss  Margaret  Hobbs, 


x  PREFACE 

Miss  Helen  Campbell,  and  Miss  Fanny  R.  Sweeny  (now  Mrs. 
Wickes).  We  are  also  indebted  to  Miss  Maud  E.  Lavery,  of 
the  School  of  Civics  and  Philanthropy,  for  assistance  of  many 
kinds.  Finally,  we  must  record  our  appreciation  of  the  help 
given  by  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  which  generously  supplied 
the  funds  necessary  for  the  carrying  out  of  this  inquiry. 

CHICAGO  SCHOOL  OF  Civics  AND  PHILANTHROPY 
November  23,  1916 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PART  ONE:   LEGAL  PRINCIPLES:   HISTORY  OF  COMPULSORY 
EDUCATION  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  LEGAL  ASPECTS  OF  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  LEGISLA- 
TION    i 

II.  HISTORY  OF  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  LEGISLATION 
IN  ILLINOIS:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  A  FREE  SCHOOL 
SYSTEM,  1818-55 J7 

III.  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  A  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE  LAW 

IN  ILLINOIS,  1855-83 40 

IV.  THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  COMPULSORY  SYSTEM,  1883-99    .      53 

V.  PARALLEL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  ILLINOIS  CHILD 
LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  LAWS,  1893- 
1916 69 

PART  TWO:  PRESENT  CONDITIONS  AND  METHODS  OF 
TREATMENT 

VI.  EXTENT  OF  TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN 
CHICAGO:  A  STUDY  OF  THE  ATTENDANCE  RECORDS 
OF  NINE  SELECTED  SCHOOLS 89 

VII.  THE  TRANSFER  SYSTEM  AS  A  FACTOR  IN  NON-ATTEND- 
ANCE     101 

VIII.  A  DETAILED  STUDY  OF  THE  EXTENT  OF  NON-ATTEND- 
ANCE IN  Two  SELECTED  SCHOOLS  114 

IX.  NON-ATTENDANCE  AT  THE  SOURCE 128 

X.  THE  HABITUAL  TRUANT  AND  THE  SCHOOLROOM  INCOR- 
RIGIBLE   148 

a 


xii    TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XI.  THE  PARENTAL  SCHOOL 165 

XII.  TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  RELATION  TO 
MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  DEFECTS  OF  SCHOOL  CHIL- 
DREN   177 

XIII.  TRUANCY  IN  RELATION  TO  DEPENDENCY  AND  DELIN- 

QUENCY      189 

XIV.  ENFORCEMENT  OF  THE  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  LAW 

IN  THE  MUNICIPAL  COURT  OF  CHICAGO    ....     200 

XV.  THE  SCHOOL  CENSUS  AS  A  MEANS  OF  ENFORCING  THE 

ATTENDANCE  LAW 211 

XVI.  THE  VISITING  TEACHER  AS  A  REMEDY  FOR  TRUANCY 

AND  NON-ATTENDANCE 226 

XVII.  THE  TRUANCY  PROBLEM  IN  THE  CHICAGO  SUBURBS  AND 

IN  OTHER  PARTS  OF  ILLINOIS 245 

XVIII.  THE  SPECIAL  PROBLEM  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT  CHILD      .     264 

XIX.  THE  EMPLOYMENT  CERTIFICATE  SYSTEM  AND  THE  SAFE- 
GUARDING OF  THE  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE 
PERIOD 287 

XX.  THE  NEED  OF  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  FOR  CHILDREN 

BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SIXTEEN  YEARS  OF  AGE  .     317 

XXI.  SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS 346 

LIST  OF  APPENDIXES 

APPENDIX 

I.  EXTRACTS  FROM  DOCUMENTS  RELATING  TO  THE  AGITA- 
TION FOR  A  SYSTEM  OF  FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  A  COM- 
PULSORY ATTENDANCE  LAW 354 

II.  EXTRACTS  FROM  PUBLICATIONS  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  EDU- 
CATION RELATING  TO  THE  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION 
PROBLEM  IN  CHICAGO 389 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xiii 

APPENDIX  PAGE 

III.  DOCUMENTS  RELATING  TO  THE  ENFORCEMENT  OF  CHILD 

LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  LAWS  m  ILLINOIS    402 
Extracts  from  the  first  four  annual  reports  of  the  Factory 
Inspectors  of  Illinois 

IV.  EARLY  LAWS  OF  THE  STATE  OF  ILLINOIS  RELATING  TO  THE 

ESTABLISHMENT  OF  FREE  SCHOOLS,  COMPULSORY  EDU- 
CATION, AND  CHILD  LABOR 431 

V.  TABLE  SHOWING  IN  PARALLEL  COLUMNS  THE  DEVELOP- 
MENT OF  THE  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  AND  CHILD 
LABOR  LAWS  OF  ILLINOIS,  1870-1916 440 

VI.  A  NOTE  ON  STATISTICS  RELATING  TO  SCHOOL  ATTEND- 
ANCE IN  CHICAGO 447 

VII.  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHICAGO  BUREAU  OF  EM- 
PLOYMENT SUPERVISION 455 

INDEX 467 


PART  I 

LEGAL  PRINCIPLES:    HISTORY  OF  COMPULSORY 
EDUCATION  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 


CHAPTER  I 
LEGAL  ASPECTS  OF  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  LEGISLATION 

Many  questions  of  interest  suggest  themselves  in  connec- 
tion with  the  attempt  of  the  community  to  provide  educational 
opportunities  for  all  the  children  and  to  insure  to  all  the  children 
the  enjoyment  of  those  opportunities.  First,  perhaps,  should 
be  considered  the  question  of  the  agency  by  which  such  pro- 
vision should  be  made.  Should  this  be  done  by  the  federal 
government  or  by  the  forty-eight  different  state  governments  ? 

The  problem  of  the  education  of  the  people  in  the  ele- 
mentary branches  is  essentially  a  national  problem  which 
should  be  looked  at  from  a  national  point  of  view.  As  a 
result  of  the  ease  of  migration  in  America  and  of  the  mobility 
of  labor  required  under  our  present  industrial  conditions,  the 
probability  of  a  person's  spending  his  later  life  in  the  place 
in  which  he  spends  his  childhood  is  very  slight.  Nor  is  there 
any  possible  way  of  forecasting  his  movements.  A  minimum 
standard  of  education  becomes,  then,  a  matter  of  concern  to 
the  entire  country,  any  portion  of  which  may  suffer  from  the 
burden  of  inadequate  training  and  consequent  industrial  and 
civic  inefficiency.  This  general  concern  has  been  registered  in 
the  grants  by  the  federal  government  of  public  land  for  edu- 
cational purposes,  and  all  questions  relating  to  education  should, 
in  fact,  also  be  regarded  from  a  national  point  of  view.  This 
is,  however,  impossible  under  our  constitutional  limitations, 
and  our  federal  government1  confines  its  activities  in  the  field 
of  education,  except  in  the  matter  of  land  grants,  to  the  collection 

1  Except,  of  course,  in  those  jurisdictions  over  which  the  federal 
government  exercises  direct  governmental  control,  as  in  the  District  of 
Columbia. 


2      TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

and  the  publication  of  educational  material1  and  to  grants 
in  aid  of  special  forms  of  education,  as  for  example,  mechanical, 
agricultural,  or  vocational  training.  Under  our  American  sys- 
tem, therefore,  the  control  over  education  is  left  to  the  juris- 
diction of  forty-eight  different  state  governments.  The  result 
of  this  has  been,  of  course,  lack  of  uniformity  with  regard  to 
every  question  of  educational  policy,  irregular  and  halting 
progress,  and  standards  established  by  the  educational  author- 
ities which  vary  from  state  to  state.2  So  universal,  however,  is 
the  interest  in  this  subject,  so  widespread  the  belief  in  its 
importance,  that  the  expenditures  for  the  support  of  the  state 
educational  systems  amount  to  very  large  sums.  The  Com- 
missioner of  Education,  for  example,  reports  that  in  a  single 
year3  the  value  of  the  common-school  property  in  the  various 
states  amounted  to  $1,266,382,277,  while  the  expenditure 
reached  the  sum  of  $482,886,793,  the  number  of  teachers 
employed  547,289,  and  the  enrolment  in  public  elementary 
schools  17,077,577.  The  corresponding  figures  for  Illinois  show 
that  the  value  of  school  property  and  school  funds  amounted  to 
$110,860,023  and  the  expenditure  amounted  to  $34,217,582. 
The  number  of  teachers  was  30,473  and  the  public-school  enrol- 
ment 912,81 1.4 

Another  question  relating  to  the  agency  which  should  pro- 
vide educational  facilities  for  the  people,  and  one  which  has 

1  See  the  annual  reports  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education.    This  is, 
of  course,  an  incomplete  statement,  if  agricultural  and  mechanical  edu- 
cation under  special  acts  of  Congress  be  recalled.     See,  for  example,  the 
so-called  Smith-Lever  bill  (Annual  Report  of  the  U.S.  Commissioner  of 
Education,  1914,  I,  296).    It  is,  however,  substantially  true  with  reference 
to  the  provision  of  general  educational  opportunity. 

2  Note  the  varying  expressions  with  regard  to  private  schools  cited 
below,  p.  4. 

3  See  Annual  Report  of  the  U.S.  Commissioner  of  Education,  1913,  II, 
17  ff. 

4  Ibid.,  p.  20.    There  was  an  estimated  enrolment  of  193,734  in  private 
schools  that  year. 


LEGAL  ASPECTS  OF  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION       3 

been  the  subject  of  bitter  controversy  in  other  countries,  is 
that  of  the  relative  claims  of  the  church  and  the  state  to  make 
such  provision.  In  the  United  States,  the  issue  has  not  in 
general  been  drawn  between  the  claims  of  the  church  on  the 
one  hand  and  of  private  initiative  of  a  non-ecclesiastical  char- 
acter on  the  other;  or  between  the  church  with  its  spiritual 
sanction  and  the  state  with  its  organization  of  compulsion,  as 
it  was  drawn  in  England  during  the  first  three-quarters  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  when  the  church  retained  the  right  to 
control  the  form  of  educational  organization  and  the  state  only 
gradually  and  almost  surreptitiously  assumed  the  power  first 
to  standardize  and  then  directly  to  organize  the  school  system.1 
It  is  interesting  to  recall  the  fact  that,  in  England,  efforts  to 
develop  a  system  of  public  education  were  opposed  by  those 
jealous  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  church  on  the  one  hand  and  by 
those  who  feared  that  the  results  of  bureaucratic  organization 
would  be  to  replace  by  monotony,  uniformity,  and  medioc- 
rity the  variety,  initiative,  and  freedom  which  should  char- 
acterize liberal  education.  John  Stuart  Mill,  for  example, 
wrote  that  a  "general  state  education  is  a  mere  contrivance 
for  moulding  people  to  be  exactly  like  one  another."2 

Although  the  issue  has  never  been  drawn  in  this  way  in  the 
United  States  and  although  the  organization  of  a  public  system 
of  education  has  from  the  earliest  settlement  of  the  country 
been  regarded  as  a  proper  exercise  of  governmental  power,  the 
government  has  never  attempted  to  monopolize  that  function 

1  A  review  of  the  development  of  the  free  compulsory  school  systems 
in  other  countries  is  beyond  the  scope  of  this  study.  For  a  general  survey 
of  these  systems,  see  DeMontmorency,  State  Intervention  in  English  Edu- 
cation; Balfour,  Educational  Systems  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland;  Craik, 
The  State  in  Relation  to  Education;  Munro,  Cyclopaedia  of  Education; 
Parker,  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Education;  Halsbury,  The  Laws  of 
England,  Vol.  XII. 

*  Essay  on  Liberty.  Mill  discusses  the  possibilities  of  the  state's 
requiring  but  not  providing  education. 


4      TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

or  seriously  to  interfere  with  the  freedom  of  private  education1 
beyond  setting  in  general  terms  a  minimum  of  instruction  to 
be  offered  and  in  some  states  requiring  that  instruction  to  be 
in  English. 

This  minimum  will  be  found  in  the  provisions  for  compul- 
sory attendance  and  is  expressed  in  several  ways.  Schools 
"taught  by  competent  instructors"  are  accepted  by  some  states 
for  attendance  in  place  of  the  public  schools.2  Instruction 
in  "branches  usually  taught  in  the  public  primary  schools" 
fulfils  the  requirement  in  others.3  Instruction  in  "  approved 
private  schools"  is  the  phraseology  used  in  the  laws  of  other 
states.4  In  some  states,  as  for  example,  Massachusetts,  the 
statutes  prescribe  the  conditions  on  which  approval  may  be 
given,  namely  when  all  instruction  in  subjects  prescribed  by 
law  is  in  the  English  language  and  equals  in  thoroughness  and 
efficiency,  and  in  the  progress  made  therein  the  instruction  in 
the  public  schools  in  the  same  place.5 

It  is  obvious  that  from  the  administrative  machinery  pro- 
vided for  the  enforcement  of  compulsory  attendance  laws, 
devices  for  standardizing  the  private,  and,  in  particular,  the 
sectarian  parochial  schools  might  be  developed.  This  has, 

1  Freund,  Police  Power,  sec.  266. 

3  For  example,  by  Colorado,  Kansas,  Montana,  New  Hampshire,  and 
Pennsylvania. 

3  California,  Connecticut,  Iowa,  Michigan,  Nevada,  New  Jersey,  New 
York,  North  Dakota,  North  Carolina,  Oregon,  South  Dakota. 

*  Maine  and  Massachusetts. 

sThe  power  of  "approval"  is  given  to  the  school  committee,  i.e.,  the 
local  educational  authority.  In  New  York,  the  six  "common  school 
branches"  are  enumerated,  viz.,  reading,  writing,  spelling,  arithmetic, 
English  grammar,  and  geography,  and  the  teaching  must  be  substantially 
equivalent  to  that  given  to  children  of  like  age  in  the  public  school,  with 
at  least  as  many  hours  a  day  and  no  considerable  difference  in  the  number 
of  holidays.  The  records  of  attendance  must  be  regularly  kept  and  open  to 
the  inspection  of  school  authorities.  Rhode  Island  has  a  similar  provision. 


LEGAL  ASPECTS  OF  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION       5 

however,  been  found  to  be  a  difficult  task,  and  one  element  in 
that  difficulty  undoubtedly  lies  in  the  fact  that  education  is 
a  matter  of  state  rather  than  federal  jurisdiction,  and  the 
opposition  based  on  sectarian  considerations  may  disguise 
itself  in  innumerable  ways  according  to  the  issues  presenting 
themselves  in  the  various  communities. 

While  the  development  of  the  American  system  of  public 
education  has  not  been  openly  resented  by  the  ecclesiastical 
organization  as  in  England,  it  has  yet  had  two  definite,  open 
sources  of  opposition  to  overcome.  The  first  is  the  claim  of  the 
taxpayer  not  to  be  compelled  to  bear  the  burden  of  the  system 
unless  actually  sharing  directly  in  the  benefit  of  the  system  by 
receiving  instruction.  It  will  appear,  for  example,  that  in 
Illinois,  after  an  unsuccessful  attempt  had  been  made  in  1825  to 
enable  the  majority  in  any  school  district  to  tax  themselves 
for  school  purposes,  it  took  thirty  years,  during  which  time 
there  existed  only  voluntary  provision  for  those  who  attended 
voluntarily,  to  establish  the  principle  that  the  "property  of  all 
could  be  taxed  to  educate  the  children  of  all." 

The  right  of  all  children  to  an  education1  has  now,  however, 
been  recognized  in  Illinois,  so  that  every  child  may  enter  school3 
when  he  has  reached  the  age  of  six3  and,  except  for  purposes  of 
necessary  discipline4  or  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  school 
against  a  present  menace  in  the  form  of  contagious  disease, 
may  not  be  excluded  from  a  school  session,5  which  cannot  legally 
last  less  than  six  months.6 

1  Illinois  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  122,  sec.  114,  par.  9. 

1  Regardless  of  color.  See  People  v.  Board  of  Education  of  Quincy, 
101  Illinois  308. 

3  Board  of  Education  v.  Bolton,  85  Illinois  Appellate  92. 
*  School  Directors  v.  Breen,  60  Illinois  Appellate  201;    167  Illinois  67; 
Thompson  v.  Beaver,  63  Illinois  353;  Rulison  v.  Post,  79  Illinois  567. 
s  People  v.  Chicago  Board  of  Education,  234  Illinois  422. 
6  Illinois  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  122,  sec.  274. 


6      TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

The  second  source  of  opposition  was  found  in  the  doubt  as 
to  the  power  of  the  state  to  interfere  with  the  parental  right  of 
the  father  to  determine  the  amount  as  well  as  the  kind  of  edu- 
cation his  children  should  have.1  One  of  the  most  important 
rights  assured  the  parent  under  the  common  law  was  that  of 
directing  the  education  of  his  child.2  The  parent  was  likewise 
supposed  to  be  under  a  duty  to  educate  his  child,  but  this  was 
only  a  moral  duty,3  unenforced  by  any  sanction,  and,  in  the 
absence  of  public  provision  or  free  religious  provision,  unen- 
forceable with  regard  to  the  poor  parent.  Moreover,  for  the 
poor  at  earlier  periods,  education  was  sometimes  related  to  the 
child's  apprenticeship,  and  the  father,  with  the  right  to  direct 
his  education,  enjoyed  likewise  the  right  to  place  his  child 
at  work  and  to  appropriate  his  earnings.  In  order  to  state 
the  situation  clearly,  the  fact  may  be  recalled  that  the  father 
at  common  law  was  entitled  to  the  custody  and  the  control  of 
the  child's  person  with  the  right  to  appropriate  the  child's  earn- 
ings. The  corollary  to  this  right  was  an  alleged  duty  to  main- 
tain, to  protect,  and  to  educate.4  The  duty  to  maintain  was  so 
slightly  enforced,  however,  as  to  give  rise  to  a  question  as  to  its 
very  existence;5  the  duty  to  protect  gave  rise  merely  to  certain 
legal  defenses,  while  the  duty  to  educate  was  declared  by  Black- 
stone  to  be  a  natural  and  not  a  legal  duty.  So  long,  therefore, 
as  the  community  merely  provides  facilities  for  public  education 

1  On  this  point  see  Mill's  interesting  statement  in  the  Essay  on  Liberty. 

2  Freund,  op.  cit.,  sec.  264;  Blackstone's  Commentaries,  Book  I,  chap. 
xvi,  "Parent  and  Child";  Halsbury,  The  Laws  of  England,  Vol.  17,  article 
on  "Infants  and  Children." 

» Hodges  v.  Hodges  (1796),  Peake's  Add.  Cos.  79;  cited  Halsbury,  op. 
cit.,  Vol.  12,  p.  4. 

4  Blackstone's  Commentaries,  Book  I,  chap.  xvi.    The  mother  shares 
these  rights  under  the  so-called  co-guardianship  laws.    See,  for  example, 
Illinois  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  64,  sec.  4. 

5  Breckinridge  and  Abbott,  The  Delinquent  Child  and  the  Home,  Ap- 
pendix, p.  183;  Garnett,  Children  and  the  Law,  p.  30. 


LEGAL  ASPECTS  OF  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION       7 

it  is  only  aiding  the  parent  in  the  performance  of  his  natural 
duty.  A  further  step  is  taken  when,  in  addition  to  providing 
facilities  of  which  the  parent  is  willing  to  take  advantage  for  the 
sake  of  his  children,  new  duties  are  imposed  on  parents  with 
reference  to  the  care  and  education  of  their  children.  The 
right  of  the  legislature  to  impose  such  new  duties  has  been 
exercised,  for  example  in  Illinois,  in  the  rapidly  increasing  body 
of  statutes  prohibiting  cruelty  to  children,1  defining  depend- 
ency and  delinquency,2  giving  to  the  courts  power  to  separate 
children  from  their  parents  when  the  good  of  the  children 
demands  such  separation,2  punishing  parents  who  contribute 
to  the  dependency  or  delinquency  of  their  children,3  requiring 
parents  to  support  their  children,4  prohibiting  the  employment 
of  young  children,5  and  requiring  the  parents  to  secure  the 
attendance  of  their  children  at  school.6  Questions  have  been 
raised  as  to  the  power  of  the  legislature  to  impose  upon  parents 

1  Illinois  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  38,  sec.  53. 

3  Ibid.,  chap.  23,  sec.  169  fol.  «  Ibid.,  chap.  64,  sec.  24. 

3  Ibid.,  chap.  38,  sec.  42  hb.  slbid.,  chap.  48,  sec.  20. 

6  Concerning  the  very  modern  character  of  these  duties,  the  following 
statement  by  Mr.  Sidney  Webb  in  an  early  issue  of  the  Crusade  may  be 
noted:  "We  must  take  note  in  passing,  that  any  such  notion  as  enforcing 
parental  responsibility  is  an  entirely  new  thing.  Speaking  not  pedantically 
as  a  lawyer,  but  broadly  as  a  historian,  it  is  an  innovation  of  the  past  half- 
century — almost,  we  may  say,  of  the  present  generation.  Our  ancestors 
never  thought  of  enforcing  parental  responsibility.  A  hundred  years  ago, 
if  a  father  left  his  children  half-starved,  scantily  clothed  in  rags,  with  the 
most  miserable  lodgings,  overcrowded  and  indecently  occupied,  with  every 
kind  of  insanitation,  so  long  as  the  parish  was  put  to  no  expense,  no  one 
took  proceedings  against  him.  Cruelty  to  animals  was  made  an  offense 
long  before  cruelty  to  children.  There  was  no  attempt  to  constrain  a 
parent  to  keep  the  child  in  health,  to  provide  medical  attendance  for  it,  to 
supply  education  or  moral  training — least  of  all  any  idea  of  enforcing  upon 
the  parent  any  fulfilment  of  the  obligation  to  furnish  the  all-important 
environment  of  a  decent  home.  With  the  not  very  real  exception  that 
doing  a  child  to  death  too  suddenly  might  (we  may  almost  say  theoretically) 
be  treated  as  murder,  there  was,  a  hundred  years  ago,  so  far  as  regards 
children  in  their  parents'  own  homes,  nothing  in  the  way  of  enforcement 
of  parental  responsibility." 


8      TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

these  new  duties,  but  the  courts  have  been  unanimous  in  hold- 
ing that  one  of  the  highest  prerogatives  of  the  state  is  its  right 
gradually  to  raise  the  standard  of  parental  care.1 

So  far  the  question  has  been  raised  before  the  courts  in 
relation  to  compulsory  attendance  only  in  connection  with  pro- 
visions for  fining  parents  who  do  not  send  their  children  to  school. 
The  question  of  the  power  to  separate  parent  and  child  on  the 
ground  of  truancy  has  not  yet  been  considered  by  any  court. 
The  right  has  been  upheld  in  the  case  of  delinquent  and  depend- 
ent children;  but  the  right  is  not  so  clear  when  the  child  is  only 
truant,  not  delinquent,  and  when  the  parents,  while  failing  to 
secure  their  children's  attendance,  do  not  maintain  homes 
sufficiently  below  normal  to  justify  finding  the  children  depend- 
ent. On  this  point  Professor  Freund  in  his  treatise  on  the 
Police  Power2  says  that  "the  commitment  of  the  child  is  a 
measure  taken  against  the  child  for  the  child's  misconduct 

1  School  Board  for  London  v.  Jackson,  L.R.,  7  Q.B.D.  502  (1881); 
State  v.  Bailey,  157  Ind.  324  (1902):  "The natural  rights  of  a  parent  to  the 
custody  and  control  of  his  infant  child  are  subordinate  to  the  power  of 
the  state,  and  may  be  restricted  and  regulated  by  municipal  laws.    One 
of  the  most  important  natural  duties  of  the  parent  is  to  educate  his  child 
and  this  duty  he  owes  not  to  the  child  only  but  to  the  community.     If  he 
neglects  to  perform  it  or  wilfully  refuses  to  do  so,  he  may  be  coerced  by 
laws  to  execute  such  civil  obligation.    The  welfare  of  the  child  and  the  best 
interests  of  society  require  that  the  state  shall  exercise  its  sovereign  authority 
to  secure  to  the  child  the  opportunity  to  acquire  an  education.    Statutes 
making  it  compulsory  upon  the  parent,  guardian  or  the  person  having  the 
custody  and  control  of  children  to  send  them  to  public  or  private  schools 
for  longer  or  shorter  periods  during  certain  years  of  the  life  of  such  children, 
have  not  only  been  upheld  as  strictly  within  the  power  of  the  legislature, 
but  have  generally  been  regarded  as  necessary  to  carry  out  the  express  pur- 
poses of  the  constitution  itself"  (p.  329).     See  also  State  v.  Clotter,  33 
Ind.  409  at  p.  411;    Burdick  v.  Babcock,  36  Iowa  562  at  p.  566;  also 
Washington  v.  Counort,  69  Washington  361;  4iL.R.A.n.s.,p.9S;  Hochheimer, 
Custody  of  Infants,  sec.  79.     See  also  The  Delinquent  Child  and  the  Home, 
Appendix,  p.  181. 

2  Sec.  265. 


LEGAL  ASPECTS  OF  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION       9 

(truancy)  and  that  the  parent  is  deprived  of  custody  is  an 
inevitable  incident  to  such  a  measure,  just  as  a  child  may  be 
deprived  of  parental  care  while  a  parent  is  imprisoned."  Since, 
however,  there  is  a  doubt  on  this  point  and  since  there  is  a  grow- 
ing belief  in  the  importance  to  the  state  of  protecting  the  child 
in  opposition,  if  need  be,  to  the  wishes  of  the  parents,  the  decision 
of  a  test-case  is  likely  to  be  more  favorable  to  the  child  and  to 
the  community  at  a  later  date  than  at  the  present  time.  In  the 
apparent  conflict  of  interest  between  the  community  and  the 
parent  with  reference  to  the  child's  early  years,  the  right  of 
the  community  is  being  slowly  but  surely  strengthened.  The 
education  authorities  have  therefore  undoubtedly  acted  wisely 
hi  not  hastening  a  decision  as  to  the  power  to  remove  the  truant 
child  from  his  parents.  In  the  one  Chicago  case  in  which  a 
parent  has  resisted  the  action  of  the  court  in  committing  his 
child  and  has  resorted  to  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  the  educa- 
tional authorities  acquiesced  and  did  not  take  the  case  to  the 
Supreme  Court.1 

From  this  preliminary  discussion  it  becomes  clear  that  the 
enforcement  of  attendance  at  school  involves  the  setting  up  of 
administrative  machinery  through  which  three  services  will  be 
rendered:  (i)  that  of  supplying  to  parents  and  children  infor- 
mation with  reference  to  their  duty  under  the  law  and  due 
notice  of  failure  to  perform  that  duty;  (2)  that  of  invoking  the 
aid  of  the  appropriate  court  in  the  case  of  wilful  and  persistent 
refusal  on  the  part  of  the  parent  to  perform  his  duty;  (3)  that 
of  enforcing  discipline  in  the  case  of  children  whose  parents  are 
unable  to  secure  their  regular  attendance  and  good  behavior 
at  school. 

1  A  question  which  has  not  been  raised,  but  which  Professor  Freund 
suggests,  is  the  power  to  compel  the  parent  to  support  the  child  during  com- 
mitment to  the  Parental  School.  It  is  submitted  that  the  duty  of  main- 
tenance formerly  unenforceable  has  now  been  sanctioned  in  various  ways, 
and  that  there  is  no  reason  why  the  duty  should  cease  because  of  default 
on  the  part  of  the  parent  or  of  the  child. 


io     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

This  administrative  agency  in  Chicago  is  the  Compulsory 
Education  Department  of  the  Board  of  Education.  The  duties 
of  the  officers  in  this  department  are  (i)  to  report  all  viola- 
tions of  the  compulsory  school  law,  (2)  to  enter  complaints 
in  cases  of  violation  of  the  law  by  the  parents,1  (3)  to 
arrest  children  of  school-going  age  who  become  habitual 
truants,  and  to  file  petitions  for  commitment  to  the  Parental 
School.2 

As  has  been  said,  however,  the  duty  of  securing  the  child's 
attendance  rests  primarily  upon  the  parent  or  the  "person 
having  control  of  the  child."3  This  duty  is  "annually  to  cause 
any  child  between  seven  and  sixteen  to  attend  a  public  or  a 
private  school"  during  the  entire  session,  which  must  not  be 
less  than  six  months. 

The  duty  is  not  always  perfectly  clear  since  the  present 
Illinois  statute  recognizes  as  entitled  to  exemption  under  the 
law:  (i)  those  children  receiving  instruction  elsewhere  in  the 
elementary  branches  by  competent  persons,  (2)  those  children 
whose  physical  and  mental  condition  renders  their  attendance 
impractical  or  inexpedient,  (3)  those  children  who  are  in  the 
words  of  the  statute  "excused  for  temporary  absence  for  cause" 
by  the  principal  or  the  teacher,  and  (4)  those  children  between 
fourteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age  who  are  necessarily  and  law- 
fully employed  during  the  hours  when  the  school  is  in  session. 
Many  difficult  questions  arise  in  connection  with  the  statutory 
list  of  exempt  cases.  Who  is  to  decide  when  attendance  is 

1  Illinois  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  122,  sees.  274,  144.  It  is  an  interest- 
ing fact  that  the  statute  provides  for  a  superintendent  of  compulsory  edu- 
cation, while  no  statutory  provision  is  made  for  a  superintendent  of  schools. 
The  former  is  therefore  more  independent  in  his  relation  to  the  board,  which 
neither  creates  his  office  nor  defines  his  duties,  than  the  latter  whose  position 
is  wholly  a  result  of  board  action. 

3  Ibid.,  sees.  145,  146. 
J  Ibid.,  sec.  275. 


LEGAL  ASPECTS  OF  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION     n 

"impractical  and  inexpedient"  because  of  the  mental  and 
physical  condition  of  the  child  ?  What  constitutes  "necessity" 
of  employment  in  the  case  of  the  fourteen-  or  fifteen-year-old 
child?  A  clear  and  universally  accepted  definition  of  these 
terms  is  essential  to  an  effective  enforcement  of  the  law.  And, 
yet,  there  are  at  present  substantially  no  general  principles 
governing  the  interpretation  of  these  clauses. 

For  a  failure,  however,  to  perform  the  duty  of  securing  the 
attendance  of  the  child  who  is  not  exempt,  the  Illinois  Statute 
provides  that  "the  parent  is  liable  to  prosecution  and  shall 
forfeit  not  less  than  $5  nor  more  than  $20  (with  or  without 
costs)  and  may  be  committed  until  payment  is  made."  For 
misstatement  as  to  the  age  of  the  child,  which  the  parent 
is  under  duty  to  make  known  correctly,  there  may  also  be 
prosecution  and  imposition  of  a  forfeit  of  from  $3  to 
$20,  without  commitment.  Prosecutions  for  these  offenses 
in  those  cities  in  which  there  is  a  Municipal  Court  are 
held  before  the  appropriate  branch  of  that  court,1  before 
which  are  also  brought  non-supporting  parents  and  those 
who  contribute  to  the  dependency  and  delinquency  of  their 
children. 

The  machinery  which  has  been  developed  in  Chicago  for 
enforcing  the  compulsory  education  law  may  briefly  be  described 
as  follows:  The  officers  of  the  Compulsory  Education  Depart- 
ment are  assigned  to  schools,  at  which  they  call  periodically  for 
reports  concerning  the  attendance  of  children  duly  enrolled. 
If  they  receive  from  the  principals  reports  of  absence  or  if  by 
such  other  agencies  as  the  United  Charities  their  attention  is 
called  to  the  fact  that  certain  children  are  either  not  enrolled 
or  are  irregular  in  their  attendance,  notices  are  sent  and  visits 
to  the  homes  are  made.  In  1913-14,  for  example,  58,064  such 

1  Illinois  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  37,  sec.  265,  par.  3,  5.  In  Chicago 
since  April  3,  1911,  these  prosecutions  are  brought  before  the  Court  of 
Domestic  Relations. 


12     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

absences  are  reported  as  having  been  investigated,1  resulting 
in  1,236  warning  notices  being  served  on  indifferent  parents 
liable  to  prosecution  in  the  Municipal  Court,  besides  1,139 
notices  connected  with  proposed  Juvenile  Court  action.  Of 
the  "indifferent  parents,"  67  were  prosecuted. 

In  case  the  real  difficulty  lies  or  appears  to  lie  with  the  child 
or  prosecution  of  the  parents  seems  an  inadequate  treatment 
of  the  situation,  it  becomes  the  duty  of  the  truant  officer,  or, 
indeed,  of  "any  reputable  citizen"  of  Chicago  to  "petition  the 
County  or  Circuit  Court  to  inquire  into  the  care  of  the  child2 
of  school  age  who  has  not  been  attending  school  or  who  has 
been  guilty  of  habitual  truancy  or  of  wilful  violations  of  the 
rules  of  the  school."  If  the  child  is  under  fourteen  years  of  age 
(and  a  boy)  he  may  under  the  statute  be  sent  to  the  Parental 
School3  to  be  kept  until  he  reaches  that  age.4 

In  Cook  County5  the  court  by  which  these  commitments 
are  made  is  the  Juvenile  Court,  which  has  jurisdiction  likewise 

1  Sixtieth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago  (1913-14), 
p.  406.  No  explanation  of  the  exact  basis  on  which  reports  are  made  to 
the  department  is  given  in  the  report  of  the  superintendent,  but  in  general 
it  may  be  said  that  when  a  child  has  been  absent  three  consecutive  days 
without  excuse,  his  absence  is  reported  to  the  compulsory  attendance 
officer  in  his  routine  visits  to  the  school.  The  58,064  cases  reported  repre- 
sent then  the  great  mass  of  absences  of  children  who  had  already  been 
absent  three  days  or  more,  besides  the  cases  of  children  discovered  on  the 
street  and  returned  to  school  or  those  reported  for  action  by  various  chari- 
table agencies  dealing  with  families  in  distress.  No  information  concern- 
ing them  is  given  in  the  report  of  the  superintendent. 

1  Illinois  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  122,  sec.  144. 

3  The  establishment  of  parental  schools  is  authorized  with  vote  of  the 
people  in  cities  of  from  25,000  to  100,000  population.    In  cities  of  over  that 
number  no  such  vote  need  be  taken. 

4  Illinois  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  122,  sec.  145.    The  Board  of  Edu- 
cation has  authority,  but  has  never  exercised  it,  to  make  similar  provision 
for  girls. 

5  The  county  in  which  Chicago  is  located. 


LEGAL  ASPECTS  OF  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION     13 

over  dependent  and  delinquent  children.  In  a  single  year,  for 
example,  826  children  are  reported  by  the  superintendent  of  the 
Department  of  Compulsory  Education  as  having  been  brought 
into  the  Juvenile  Court.  Of  these,  424  were  committed  to  the 
Parental  School,1  386  were  either  released  on  probation  or  con- 
tinued, generally  pending  good  behavior,  14  were  transferred  to 
the  dependent  docket,2  and  2  dismissed. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  commitment  to  the  Parental  School 
does  not  yet  rest  on  a  clear  decision  upholding  the  law,  it  is 
interesting  to  notice  that  the  early  suggestions  for  a  truant 
police  were  made  rather  with  the  idea  of  assisting  those  parents 
who  voluntarily  enrolled  their  children  to  secure  regularity  of 
attendance  than  to  compel  indifferent  parents  to  enrol  their 
children.  In  the  same  way,  the  Parental  School  has  been  and 
is  used  as  an  aid  to  the  parent,  who,  desiring  to  have  his  child 
attend  but  unable  to  secure  that  attendance,  consents  to  his 
commitment,  or  at  least  does  not  resist  the  action  of  the  court. 

The  interests  of  the  Chicago  children  are  better  safeguarded 
than  are  those  of  children  in  the  outlying  parts  of  the  county. 
Prosecutions  in  the  Court  of  Domestic  Relations  are  possible 
only  for  children  within  the  city  limits.  The  jurisdiction  of  the 
Juvenile  Court  extends,  of  course,  over  the  whole  of  Cook 
County,  but  the  Parental  School  is  maintained  by  the  city  and 
only  city  children  can  be  committed  there.  There  are  hi  Cook 
County  outside  of  Chicago  175  school  districts,  all  of  which  are 
under  a  duty  to  appoint  truant  officers  with  power  to  prosecute 
parents  in  courts  of  appropriate  jurisdiction.  But  no  parental 
school  is  available  for  the  children  who  need  care  and  discipline. 

The  statement  of  the  terms  of  the  statute  and  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  machinery  which  has  been  elaborated  for  its  enforce- 

1  Sixtieth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago  (1913-14), 
p.  406. 

3  Under  the  Juvenile  Court  act:  Illinois  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  23, 
sees.  169  fol. 


14     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

ment  makes  it  clear  that  the  enjoyment  by  the  children  of  that 
minimum  of  education  which  the  statute  has  fixed  is  dependent 
upon  many  factors.  The  efficiency  of  the  Compulsory  Edu- 
cation Department  is,  of  course,  fundamental;  but  its  effective 
action  depends  in  part,  of  course,  on  the  intelligence  of  the  judges 
before  whom  they  must  bring  the  parents  and  children  for 
violation  of  the  statute.  If,  for  example,  the  judge  fails  to 
realize  the  importance  of  securing  to  the  child  the  right  granted 
under  the  statute,  the  right  maybe  substantially  done  away  with. 
Such  was  the  result  in  an  English  case  in  which  a  parent  was 
accused  of  allowing  his  little  daughter  to  remain  away  from 
school  without  a  reasonable  excuse  when  he  let  her  work  in 
domestic  service  instead  of  sending  her  to  school.  The  by- 
law required  that  the  parent  of  every  child  not  less  than  five 
nor  more  than  thirteen  years  of  age  should  cause  such  child  to 
attend  school  unless  there  should  be  a  reasonable  excuse.  Three 
reasonable  excuses  were  named  in  the  act,  namely,  (i)  efficient 
instruction  elsewhere,  (2)  sickness  or  other  unavoidable  cause, 
(3)  no  public  elementary  school  within  three  miles.  In  this  case 
a  little  twelve-year-old  girl  who  could  read  and  write,  the  oldest 
of  several  children,  was  kept  out  of  school  and  allowed  by  her 
parents  to  take  employment  as  a  domestic  in  another  family  for 
which  she  was  paid  three  shillings  (75  cents)  a  week  and  her 
meals.  The  parents  were  sober  and  hard  working  and  claimed 
that  they  could  earn  no  more  than  they  were  already  earning 
and  they  could  not  support  the  other  children  without  the  little 
daughter's  aid.  They  claimed  that  the  need  constituted  a 
"reasonable  excuse"  under  the  by-law.  The  judge,  the 
learned  Sir  James  Fitzjames  Stephen,  said: 

I  think  the  respondent  has  shown  a  reasonable  excuse  within 
the  act  for  the  non-attendance  of  his  child  at  school.  It  appears 
from  the  statements  in  the  case  that  the  child  has  been  earning 
money  which  must  have  formed  a  necessary  and  considerable  part 
of  the  maintenance  of  the  family.  She  has  been  discharging  the 


LEGAL  ASPECTS  OF  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION     15 

honorable  duty  of  helping  her  parents  and,  for  my  own  part,  before 
I  held  that  these  facts  did  not  afford  a  reasonable  excuse  for  her 
non-attendance  at  school,  I  should  require  to  see  the  very  plainest 
words  to  the  contrary  in  the  act.  I  might  add  that  there  is  nothing 
I  should  read  with  greater  reluctance  in  any  act  of  parliament  than 
that  a  child  was  bound  to  postpone  the  direct  necessity  of  her  family 
to  the  advantage  of  getting  a  little  more  education  for  herself.1 

Such  a  decision  would  of  course  give  notice  to  the  education 
authorities  that  it  was  futile  to  attempt  to  protect  the  interests 
of  such  children  and  would  render  nugatory  the  entire  provision 
enacted  for  their  protection.2 

Principals  and  teachers  have,  of  course,  a  heavy  responsi- 
bility laid  upon  them  in  the  power  given  them  to  excuse  tempo- 
rary absence  for  cause,  and  the  machinery  will  be  seen  to  fail 
sometimes  because  of  inadequate  provision  for  testing  the  child's 
mental  powers  and  for  removing  mental  or  physical  handicaps 
which  make  attendance  impractical  or  inexpedient.  Adequacy 
of  provision  for  the  treatment  of  children  whose  homes  are  unfit 
and  whose  parents  are  incompetent  and  the  responsiveness  of 
parents  to  the  community  efforts  in  behalf  of  their  children — 
these  and  many  other  factors  enter  into  the  question  and 
determine  the  manner  of  its  solution. 

1  London  School  Board  v.  Duggan,  13  Q.B.D.  176. 

3  The  following  statement  made  by  the  New  York  State  Education 
Department  with  reference  to  the  enforcement  of  the  compulsory  school 
law  in  that  state  has  significance  in  this  connection.  The  italics  are  ours: 
"From  all  this,  it  should  not  be  inferred  that  substantial  advance  is  not 
being  made  from  year  to  year  in  a  better  compliance  with  the  requirements 
of  this  statute  throughout  the  state.  School  authorities,  teachers,  attend- 
ance officers,  and  others  are  securing  compliance  with  the  law  pretty  well 
and  often  in  spite  of  the  weakness  of  the  courts.  With  the  steady  increase 
in  public  sentiment  in  favor  of  a  proper  enforcement  of  the  law,  the  time 
is  not  far  distant  when  delinquent  judges  will  find  that  it  will  be  not  only 
unpopular  but  dangerous  to  fail  to  protect  children  in  their  legal  rights  under 
this  statute." — Eighth  Annual  Report  of  the  Education  Department  of  the 
State  of  New  York  (1912),  p.  333. 


1 6     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

In  the  following  chapters  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  review 
the  history  of  the  Illinois  legislation  by  which  the  rights  of 
children  and  the  duties  of  parents  have  been  formulated.  Facts 
will  be  presented  with  reference  to  the  present  extent  and  the 
apparent  causes  of  truancy  and  non-attendance  in  Chicago.  It 
is  believed  that  such  an  examination  is  necessary  in  order  to 
determine  the  adequacy  of  the  present  law  and  its  administra- 
tion ;  and  it  is  hoped  that  such  an  inquiry  may  serve  as  a  basis 
for  suggestions  of  necessary  modifications  in  the  machinery  for 
dealing  with  the  truant  child  or  the  recalcitrant  parent. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  LEGIS- 
LATION IN  ILLINOIS:    THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  A  FREE 
SCHOOL  SYSTEM,  1818-55 

No  history  of  compulsory  education  legislation  can  ignore 
the  long  preliminary  struggle  for  the  establishment  of  a  free 
school  system;  for  it  was,  of  course,  impossible  in  America  to 
think  of  making  education  compulsory  before  it  became  free. 
The  history  of  the  growth  of  the  free  compulsory  system  in 
Illinois  is  of  more  than  local  interest;  for  Illinois  is  the  largest 
state  in  the  middle  western  group,  and  the  course  of  develop- 
ment of  such  legislation  in  Illinois  has  been  determined  by  con- 
ditions similar  to  those  existing  in  many  other  states. 

An  account  of  the  establishment  of  a  free  compulsory  edu- 
cational system  in  this  state  may  be  divided  into  three  periods: 
(i)  the  period  of  the  struggle  for  the  "free"  principle — from 
the  year  1818,  when  Illinois  was  admitted  to  statehood,  to  the 
year  1855,  when  the  principle  of  taxation  for  the  support  of  free 
common  schools  was  accepted  in  the  free  school  law  of  that 
year;  (2)  the  period  of  struggle  for  the  compulsory  principle — 
from  the  year  1855  to  the  year  1883,  when  the  first  compulsory 
law  was  passed;  (3)  the  period  of  struggle  for  the  perfection 
of  the  compulsory  law,  a  struggle  which  has  been  going  on  ever 
since  the  passage  of  the  first  compulsory  law  in  1883  but  which 
entered  upon  a  new  phase,  which  should  perhaps  be  designated 
as  a  fourth  "period,"  when  preventive  legislation,  such  as  child 
labor  and  juvenile  court  laws,  began  to  supplement  the  com- 
pulsory laws  that  could  not  become  effective  without  such 
supplementary  statutes. 


1 8     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Theories  of  the  necessity  for  universal  education  as  the 
basis  of  successful  democratic  government  were  not  easily  put 
into  operation  in  the  frontier  states.  It  should  not  be  over- 
looked that  when  Illinois  became  a  state  these  theories  had  not 
been  reduced  to  practice  anywhere,  although  the  "Common- 
wealth of  Massachusetts"  had  made  a  most  commendable 
beginning.  In  an  excellent  summary  of  his  chapter  on  ''The 
Common  School  in  the  First  Half  Century,"  Professor  McMaster 
says, 

When  John  Quincy  Adams  took  the  oath  of  office  ....  the 
common  school  did  not  exist  as  an  American  institution.  In  some 
states  it  was  slowly  struggling  into  existence;  in  others  it  was  quite 
unknown.  Here,  the  maintenance  was  voluntary.  There,  free 
education  was  limited  to  children  of  paupers  or  of  parents  too  poor 
to  educate  their  sons  and  daughters  at  their  own  expense.  Else- 
where, state  aid  was  coupled  with  local  taxation.  Scarcely  any- 
where did  the  common  school  system  really  flourish.  Parents  were 
indifferent.  Teachers  as  a  class  were  ill  fitted  for  the  work  before 
them,  and  many  a  plan  which  seemed  most  promising  as  displayed 
in  the  laws  accomplished  little  for  the  children  of  the  state.1 

The  almost  desperate  struggle  for  the  bare  necessities  of  life 
together  with  the  difficulties  of  organizing  an  educational  system 
in  an  undeveloped  agricultural  state  proved  to  be  almost  insur- 
mountable in  a  great  state  like  Illinois  with  a  territory  of  over 
fifty-six  thousand  square  miles.  The  perplexing  problems  that 
arose  in  connection  with  the  organization  of  the  government  of 
the  new  state,  as  well  as  pressing  political  questions  relating  to 
slavery  and  to  internal  improvements,  absorbed  the  time  and 
the  energy  required  for  the  establishment  of  a  state-provided 
free  school  system.  Moreover,  a  large  proportion  of  the  pioneer 
settlers  of  this  state  had  emigrated  from  Pennsylvania,  Louisiana, 

1  History  of  the  American  People,  Vol.  V,  chap,  xlix,  "The  Common 
School  in  the  First  Half  Century,"  p.  343. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  A  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM          19 

and  Kentucky — states  in  which  the  principle  of  universal  edu- 
cation through  public  schools  had  not  yet  been  established. 

In  its  origin,  the  Illinois  free  school  system  may  be  said 
to  go  back  to  the  ordinance  of  1785,  which  provided  that  in  the 
Northwest  Territory,  the  great  public  domain  from  which 
Illinois  and  the  other  "North-Central"  states  were  created, 
the  sixteenth  section  (one  square  mile)  of  every  township  should 
be  set  aside  for  the  support  of  public  schools  in  the  township.1 
An  earlier  draft  of  the  ordinance,  which  also  made  provision  for 
the  support  of  religion,  had  provided  that  "there  shall  be 
reserved  the  central  section  of  every  township  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  public  schools;  and  the  section  immediately  adjoining 
the  same  to  the  northward,  for  the  support  of  religion.  The 
profits  arising  therefrom  in  both  instances,  to  be  applied  forever 
according  to  the  will  of  the  majority  of  the  male  residents  of 
full  age  within  the  same."  But  Congress  refused  to  assent  to 
the  reservation  for  religion  and  refused  also  to  pass  an  amend- 
ment making  the  reservation  "for  charitable  uses,"2  so  that 
in  the  end  education  alone  was  provided  for. 

Bancroft,  commenting  on  this  legislation  in  his  History  of 
the  Constitution,  says, 

It  was  a  land  law  for  a  people  going  forth  to  take  possession  of 
a  seemingly  endless  domain.  Its  division  was  to  be  into  townships, 
with  a  perpetual  reservation  of  one  mile  square  in  every  township 
for  the  support  of  religion,  and  another  part  for  education.  The 
House  refused  its  assent  to  the  reservation  for  the  support  of  reli- 
gion, as  connecting  the  church  with  the  state;  but  the  reservation 
for  the  support  of  schools  received  a  general  welcome.3 

1  In  the  final  draft  of  the  ordinance,  the  provision  was:  "There  shall 
be  reserved  the  lot  No.  16  of  every  township,  for  the  maintenance  of  public 
schools  within  the  said  township." — Journal  of  Congress  (Philadelphia, 
1801),  Vol.  10,  p.  21. 

3  Ibid.,  Vol.  10,  pp.  96-98. 

J  History  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  p.  134. 


20     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Later  the  ordinance  of  1787  contained  the  well-known 
declaration  that  "religion,  morality  and  knowledge  being 
necessary  to  good  government  and  the  happiness  of  mankind, 
schools  and  the  means  of  education  shall  be  forever  encouraged."1 
It  is,  however,  interesting  to  note  that  these  grants  for  schools 
were  due  not  wholly  to  a  noble  solicitude  for  education  but  in 
part  to  a  belief  that  if  provision  were  made  for  schools  people 
would  remove  more  readily  into  a  new  territory  and  the  public 
lands  would  therefore  be  more  salable.2 

The  territorial  legislature  of  Illinois  passed  no  laws  relating 
to  education,  and  the  subject  was  not  mentioned  in  the  first 
constitution  of  the  state,  that  of  1818.  But  in  the  same  year 
the  act  of  Congress  that  had  provided  for  the  admission  of 
Illinois  as  a  state  contained  two  provisions  regarding  educa- 
tion. These  provisions  of  the  so-called  "enabling  act"  were  as 
follows: 

1.  That  section  numbered  sixteen,  in  every  township,  and  when 
such  section  has  been  sold  or  otherwise  disposed  of,  other  lands 
equivalent  thereto,  and  as  contiguous  as  may  be,  shall  be  granted 
to  the  State,  for  the  use  of  the  inhabitants  of  such  township,  for  the 
use  of  the  schools. 

2.  That  five  per  cent  of  the  net  proceeds  of  the  lands  lying  within 
such  State,  and  which  shall  be  sold  by  Congress,  from  and  after  the 
first  day  of  January,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  nineteen,  after 
deducting  all  expenses  incident  to  the  same,  shall  be  reserved  for  the 
purposes  following,  viz.,  two-fifths  to  be  disbursed,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Congress,  in  making  roads  leading  to  the  State;  the  residue 
to  be  appropriated  by  the  Legislature  of  the  State,  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  learning,  of  which  one-sixth  part  shall  be  exclusively  bestowed 
on  a  college  or  university.3 

1  Ordinance  of  1787,  Art.  III. 

3  See  George  W.  Knight,  Land  Grants  for  Education  in  the  Northwest 
Territory  (New  York  and  London,  1885),  pp.  13-15. 

*  Sees,  i  and  3  in  the  "Act  to  Enable  the  people  of  Illinois  Territory 
to  form  a  Constitution  and  State  Government"  (April  18,  1818)  in  General 


STRUGGLE  FOR  A  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM         21 

Although  no  attempt  will  be  made  to  review  the  history  of 
these  famous  educational  land  grants,  it  should  be  noted  that 
the  school  lands  were  unfortunately  not  valuable  enough  to 
bring  in  any  income  during  the  early  years  when  public  lands 
were  still  available  for  new  settlers;  the  short-sighted  policy  of 
the  wasteful  management  and  sale  of  these  lands  which  was 
adopted  by  Illinois  as  by  other  new  states  in  the  hope  of  getting 
an  immediate  return,  produced  funds  utterly  inadequate  even 
for  the  poorest  sort  of  schools.1  It  therefore  soon  became 

Public  Acts  of  Congress  Respecting  the  Sale  and  Disposition  of  the  Public 
Lands  (Washington,  B.C.,  1838),  Vol.  I,  p.  301. 

This  second  provision  was  an  amendment  to  the  original  enabling  act, 
and  was  due  to  the  efforts  of  the  territorial  representative  in  Congress, 
Nathaniel  Pope.  See  Annals  of  Congress,  ist  Session,  Vol.  II,  p.  1677 
(H.  of  R.,  April  4, 1818)  for  the  following  account:  "Mr.  Pope  then  moved 
further  to  amend  the  bill,  by  striking  out  that  part  which  appropriated  the 
State's  proportion  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands  to  the 
construction  of  roads  and  canals  in  said  State,  and  to  insert  the  following: 
'For  the  purposes  following,  viz.,  two-fifths  to  be  disbursed,  under  the 
direction  of  Congress,  in  making  roads  leading  to  the  State;  the  residue  to 
be  appropriated  by  the  Legislature  of  the  State  for  the  encouragement  of 
learning,  of  which  one  ....  part  shall  be  exclusively  bestowed  on  a  college 
or  university.' 

"Mr.  P.  said,  that  the  funds  proposed  to  be  applied  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  learning  had,  in  the  other  new  states,  been  devoted  to  roads;  but 
its  application  had,  it  was  believed,  not  been  productive  of  the  good  antici- 
pated; on  the  contrary,  it  had  been  exhausted  on  local  and  neighbor- 
hood objects,  by  its  distribution  among  the  counties,  according  to  their 
respective  representation  in  the  Legislature.  The  importance  of  education 
in  a  Republic,  he  said,  was  universally  acknowledged;  and  that  no  active 
fund  would  be  provided  in  a  new  state,  the  history  of  the  Western  States 
too  clearly  proved." 

1  It  is  of  interest  that  Dr.  Knight,  in  the  excellent  monograph  already 
referred  to,  maintains  that  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  school  lands  were  so 
wastefully  disposed  of,  yet  the  grants  did  much  to  "promote  the  cause  of 
education."  He  maintains  that  "perhaps  the  greatest  benefit  rendered 
by  the  funds  has  been  in  fostering  among  the  people  a  desire  for  good  schools. 
Without  the  land  grants,  the  burden  of  maintaining  free  schools  would 


22     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

apparent  that  the  only  method  of  providing  for  education  was 
that  of  taxation,  a  method  stubbornly  resisted  by  the  great 
majority  of  the  new  settlers,  many  of  whom  were  desperately  poor. 

As  early  as  1825  the  Illinois  legislature  had  passed  an  act 
providing  for  a  school  system  supported  by  public  taxation, 
but  in  passing  the  law  the  legislature  had  taken  a  step  that  was 
a  generation  in  advance  of  public  sentiment;  and,  according  to 
Governor  Thomas  Ford,  the  very  idea  of  a  tax  was  "so  hate- 
ful" that  the  act  was  "the  subject  of  much  clamorous  opposi- 
tion." "The  people,"  he  said,  "preferred  to  pay  all  that  was 
necessary  for  the  tuition  of  their  children  or  to  keep  them  in 
ignorance  rather  than  submit  to  the  mere  name  of  a  tax  by 
which  their  wealthier  neighbors  bore  the  brunt  of  the  expense 
of  their  education." 

This  advanced  law  of  1825,  which  was  entitled,  "An  Act 
providing  for  the  establishment  of  free  schools,"  is  so  interesting 
that  the  preamble  and  part  of  the  first  section  are  quoted  at 
length: 

To  enjoy  our  rights  and  liberties  [the  preamble  stated]  we  must 
understand  them;  their  security  and  protection  ought  to  be  the  first 
object  of  a  free  people;  and  it  is  a  well-established  fact  that  no  nation 
has  ever  continued  long  in  the  enjoyment  of  civil  and  political  free- 
dom, which  was  not  virtuous  and  enlightened;  and  believing  that 

have  seemed  oppressive  to  the  new  state,  but  aided  by  the  income  of  the 
funds,  the  people  have  grown  into  a  habit  of  taxing  themselves  heavily  for 
the  support  of  education.  Thus  the  funds  have  made  possible  a  system 
of  education  which  without  them  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  estab- 
lish."— Knight,  op.  cit.,  pp.  166-67.  It  should  perhaps  be  noted  here  that 
there  are  seven  different  educational  "funds"  in  Illinois:  (i)  the  township 
fund;  (2)  the  seminary  fund;  (3)  the  school  fund  proper;  (4)  the  college 
fund;  (5)  the  industrial  university  fund;  (6)  the  surplus  revenue  fund; 
(7)  the  county  fund.  See  John  W.  Cook,  Educational  History  of  Illinois, 
p.  71,  and  "Sketch  of  the  Permanent  Public  School  Funds  of  Illinois"  in 
Fourteenth  Biennial  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of 
Illinois  (1881-82).  p.  cxx. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  A  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM         23 

the  advancement  of  literature  always  has  been  and  ever  will  be  the 
means  of  developing  more  fully  the  rights  of  man,  that  the  mind  of 
every  citizen  in  a  republic,  is  the  common  property  of  society,  and 
constitutes  the  basis  of  its  strength  and  happiness;  it  is  therefore 
considered  the  peculiar  duty  of  a  free  government,  like  ours,  to 
encourage  and  extend  the  improvement  and  cultivation  of  the  intel- 
lectual energies  of  the  whole. 

And  the  first  section  of  the  statute  provided  that 

There  shall  be  established  a  common  school  or  schools  in  each 
of  the  counties  of  this  state,  which  shall  be  open  and  free  to  every 
class  of  white  citizens,  between  the  ages  of  five  and  twenty-one  years 
of  age. 

The  legislature  boldly  assumed  that  if  education  were 
essential  the  people  would  be  willing  to  tax  themselves  to  pro- 
vide it,  since  in  no  other  way  could  the  necessary  funds  be 
obtained.  But  in  providing  that  a  majority  of  the  voters  in 
any  district  might  decide  on  the  levy  of  a  general  property  tax 
to  provide  for  the  support  of  the  common  schools  of  that  dis- 
trict, the  legislature  had  attempted  to  establish  a  principle 
which  the  people  of  Illinois  were  not  ready  to  accept  in  the  year 
1825.  The  law  was  the  object  of  such  bitter  opposition  that 
it  was  promptly  repealed  by  the  next  legislature,  and  a  period 
of  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  elapsed  before  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  could  be  persuaded  to  make  any  pro- 
vision for  tax-supported  schools. 

In  interesting  contrast  to  our  present  school  law,  which 
requires  that  all  children  within  specified  ages  must  be  sent  to 
school,  the  early  law  of  1825  merely  provided  for  an  annual 
report  of  the  number  of  children  living  in  each  school  district 
and  "what  number  of  them  are  actually  sent  to  school." 
Contrary  also  to  present  practice,  the  law  penalized  not  the 
parents  of  children  who  did  not  go  to  school  but  the  parents  of 
those  who  did.  Thus  the  law  provided  that  the  work  of  build- 
ing or  repairing  schoolhouses  and  furnishing  the  schoolhouses 


24     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

"with  fire  and  wood  and  furniture"  should  fall  upon  everyone 
who  had  the  care  of  a  child  between  five  and  twenty-one,  pro- 
vided such  child  attended  school  "for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
instruction." 

It  has  been  said  that  the  obnoxious  provisions  of  this  law 
were  promptly  repealed.  Early  in  the  year  1827  the  succeed- 
ing legislature  wiped  out  the  essential  principle  of  the  free 
school  law  of  1825  by  an  amendment  which  provided  that  no 
person  should  be  taxed  for  the  support  of  a  free  school  except 
by  his  own  consent  "obtained  in  writing,"  a  provision  that 
placed  the  schools  on  a  subscription  basis.  The  new  law  was 
called,  "An  act  providing  for  the  establishment  of  free  schools, 
approved  January  15,  1825,  and  for  other  purposes"  (passed 
February  17,  1827).  The  section  relating  to  taxation  was  as 
follows: 

SEC.  4.  No  person  shall  be  taxed  without  his  consent.  No  person 
shall  hereafter  be  taxed  for  the  support  of  any  free  school  in  this 
state,  unless  by  his  or  her  own  free  will  and  consent,  first  had  and 
obtained,  in  writing.  And  any  person  agreeing  and  consenting 
shall  be  taxed  in  the  manner  prescribed  in  the  act  to  which  this 
is  an  agreement:  Provided,  that  no  person  shall  be  permitted  to 
send  any  scholar  or  scholars  to  such  school,  unless  such  person 
shall  have  consented,  as  above,  to  be  taxed  for  the  support  of  such 
school 

The  General  Assembly  of  1829,  which  was  also  reactionary 
with  regard  to  educational  matters,  passed  a  new  school  law, 
which  again  provided  that  no  person  was  to  be  taxed  for  the 
support  of  free  schools  unless  he  gave  consent  in  writing.  This 
law  also  contained  a  disastrous  provision  for  the  sale  of 
school  lands  as  soon  as  proper  authorization  could  be  obtained 
from  Congress.  The  support  of  education  thus  became, 
except  for  small  sums  derived  from  the  permanent  school  fund, 
dependent  on  what  was  really  a  system  of  voluntary  subscrip- 
tions, which  meant  that  not  only  the  children  of  those  parents 


STRUGGLE  FOR  A  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM         25 

who  were  indifferent  to  education  but  the  children  of  parents 
who  were  poor  or  unduly  thrifty  were  alike  unprovided  for  and 
unprotected.  Schools  were  only  for  those  children  whose 
parents  were  either  well-to-do  or  willing  to  make  sacrifices  for 
the  sake  of  their  children's  future.  Four  years  later,  the  school 
law1  of  1833  added  a  provision  that  there  was  to  be  "gratuitous 
instruction"  for  all  "orphans  and  children  of  indigent  parents 
residing  in  the  vicinity."  In  general,  however,  pauper  children 
were  not  compelled  to  go  to  school.  A  pauper  child  was  bound 
out  as  an  apprentice  with  a  provision  in  the  indenture  that  he 
was  to  be  "taught  to  read  and  write,  and  the  ground  rules  of 
arithmetic." 

Unwilling  to  tax  themselves  for  the  support  of  schools,  the 
early  legislators  of  Illinois  were  only  too  quick  to  take  advan- 
tage of  any  help  that  might  come  from  the  federal  land  grants,  and 
the  wasteful  method  of  alienating  for  a  song  the  lands  that  were 
destined  to  be  almost  fabulously  valuable  was  soon  inaugurated. 
The  General  Assembly  of  1831,  without  waiting  for  congressional 
sanction,  passed  an  act*  providing  for  the  immediate  sale  of 
those  sections  of  land  "numbered  16"  in  each  township,  which 
the  state  was  supposed  to  hold  as  a  trust  fund  for  the  education 
of  its  children. 

1  The  law  of  1833  was  entitled  "An  Act  to  provide  for  the  application 
of  the  Interest  of  the  Fund  arising  from  the  sale  of  the  school  lands  belonging 
to  the  several  townships  in  this  state."  Sec.  4  of  the  law  prescribed  in  detail 
the  method  of  keeping  the  attendance  and  provided  that  the  teacher  should 
"add  together  the  number  of  days  which  each  scholar  residing  in  the  proper 
township"  had  attended  his  school,  and  the  total  number  of  days  attend- 
ance was  to  be  the  basis  on  which  the  school  commissioner  should  apportion 
the  income  of  the  school  fund,  provided  it  were  "accompanied  by  a  cer- 
tificate from  a  majority  of  the  trustees  of  the  school  ....  setting  forth 
that  ....  said  teacher  had,  to  the  best  of  their  knowledge  and  belief, 
given  gratuitous  instruction  in  said  school,  to  all  such  orphans  and  children 
of  indigent  parents  residing  in  the  vicinity,  as  had  been  presented  for  that 
purpose  by  the  trustees  of  said  school." 

*  Knight,  op.  cii.,  p.  79. 


26     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

As  a  result  of  the  unwillingness  or  inability  of  the  people 
to  provide  schools,  the  majority  of  the  children  of  Illinois  were 
without  any  chance  of  schooling.  An  article  in  a  contemporary 
journal,  the  Annals  of  Education,1  said  that  in  1831  only  about 
one-fourth  of  the  children  between  four  and  sixteen  years  of 
age  attended  school  during  any  portion  of  the  year.  The 
schools  that  existed  were  kept  open  only  a  few  weeks  in  the  year 
and  were  miserably  equipped  and  taught. 

Discouraging  as  was  the  educational  situation  at  this  time, 
the  hope  of  a  free  school  system  was  by  no  means  dead.  Socie- 
ties were  organized  to  promote  the  cause  of  free  common  schools, 
and  " addresses"  and  "memorials"  were  circulated  as  propa- 
ganda in  behalf  of  public  education.  In  February,  1833,  an 
educational  convention  was  held  at  Vandalia,  then  capital  of 
the  state,  and  early  in  the  following  year  the  "friends  of  edu- 
cation" began  to  make  preparation  for  securing  favorable 
legislation  at  the  next  session  of  the  legislature.  Popular 
interest  in  the  subject  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  more  than 
half  the  counties  in  the  state  sent  delegates  to  the  second 
Illinois  educational  convention,  held  at  Vandalia,  December  5, 
1 834.*  This  convention,  of  which  Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  the 
secretary  pro  tern.,  issued  an  address  to  the  people  of  Illinois3 

'Quoted  in  W.  L.  Pillsbury,  "Early  Education  in  Illinois,"  in  Six- 
teenth Biennial  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of  Illinois 
(1885-86),  p.  cviii.  Another  contemporary  estimate  was  that  "of  20,000 
children  in  the  state  nearly  one-half  were  destitute  of  the  means  of  edu- 
cation." 

2  The  proceedings  of  the  second  educational  convention,  also  held  at 
Vandalia,  are  given  in  full  in  the  Sixteenth  Biennial  Report  of  the  Super- 
intendent of  Public  Instruction  of  Illinois  (1885-86)  pp.  cxv-cxxi.    The  pro- 
ceedings of  the  first  convention  are  also  quoted  on  pp.  cix-cxi  of  this  same 
report. 

3  The  opening  paragraphs  of  this  address  (expressive  of  the  sense  of 
this  convention  on  the  subject  of  common-school  education)  are  indicative 
of  its  general  character:   "Fellow-Citizens. — This  is  an  important  crisis 


STRUGGLE  FOR  A  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM         27 

urging  them  "to  adopt  a  system  which  would  carry  to  every 
man's  door  the  means  of  educating  his  children  as  the  offspring 
of  freeman  should  be  taught,"  and  asking  the  question,  "Shall 
it  be  said  that  Illinois  is  too  poor  to  educate  her  sons  and  her 
daughters?  To  hesitate  upon  this  subject  is  to  charge  the 
people  with  a  want  of  spirit  and  an  ignorance  of  the  character 
of  the  age  in  which  they  live."1  That  this  convention  was  not 
prepared  to  urge  any  radical  measures  is  indicated  by  the  follow- 
ing extract  from  the  memorial  sent  to  the  legislature: 

In  proposing  for  adoption  any  plan  of  common  school  instruction 
in  this  state,  reference  must  be  had  to  the  state  of  feeling  on  this  sub- 
ject which  pervades  the  community,  as  well  as  to  our  pecuniary 
resources.  The  prevailing  public  sentiment,  we  believe,  will  not 
authorize  the  adoption  of  a  system,  which  will  have  to  be  enforced 
by  heavy  pains  and  penalties,  and  encumbered  with  all  the  minute 

in  the  history  of  our  state.  Possessing  a  territory  of  59,300  square  miles, 
unsurpassed  in  any  country,  and  unrivalled  in  fertility  of  soil;  able  to 
enjoy,  at  comparatively  small  expense,  easy  and  cheap  transportation  for 
her  produce;  having  an  enterprising  population  of  more  than  250,000;  and 
subject  to  an  unparalleled  flow  of  emigration;  narrow  and  contracted  legis- 
lation will  retard  her  onward  march,  whilst  judicious  and  manly  enactments 
will  excite  her  to  honorable  exertion,  arouse  in  action  her  intellect,  and 
develop  her  mighty  resources.  And  among  all  the  subjects,  at  this  time, 
calling  for  liberal  and  enlightened  legislation,  we  recognize  none,  having 
equal  claims  upon  the  patronage  of  the  people,  with  that  of  the  common 
school  education.  A  well-devised  system  of  primary  schools  will  secure 
to  their  families  increased  prosperity  and  happiness,  and  to  their  country, 
wealth,  glory  and  freedom. 

"Entertaining  those  views  of  the  great  advantages  which  would  result 
from  a  general  enjoyment  of  common  school  education,  and  of  the  impor- 
tance of  legislative  action  in  reference  thereto,  it  is  well  to  enquire  whether 
it  be  now  practicable  and  expedient  for  the  people  of  Illinois  to  adopt 
a  system  which  would  carry  to  every  man's  door  the  means  of  educating 
his  children  as  the  offspring  of  freeman  should  be  taught." — Sixteenth 
Biennial  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of  Illinois  (1885- 
86),  p.  cxvii. 

1  Ibid.,  p.  cxix. 


28     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

details  of  the  school  system  of  many  of  our  sister  states,  with  the 
management  and  operation  of  which,  the  citizens  of  this  state  are 
unacquainted.1 

In  a  communication  to  the  General  Assembly  during  this 
same  year,  Governor  Joseph  Duncan,  who  as  a  member  of  the 
General  Assembly  had  introduced  the  free  school  law  of  1825, 
called  attention  to  the  important  but  neglected  subject  of 
education.  "Every  consideration,"  he  wrote,  " connected 
with  the  virtue,  elevation  and  happiness  of  man  and  the  char- 
acter and  prosperity  of  our  state,  and  of  our  common  country, 
calls  upon  you  to  establish  some  permanent  system  of  common 
schools,  by  which  an  education  may  be  placed  within  the  power, 
nay,  if  possible,  secured  to  every  child  in  the  state."2 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  mem- 
ber of  this  legislature  and  that  he  had  already  published  in  the 
Sangamon  Journal  the  following  statement  of  his  position  on  the 
question  of  public  education. 

Upon  the  subject  of  education,  not  presuming  to  dictate  any 
plan  or  systems  respecting  it,  I  can  only  say  that  I  view  it  as  the 
most  important  subject  that  we  as  a  people  can  be  engaged  in. 
That  every  man  may  receive  at  least  a  moderate  education,  and 
thereby  be  enabled  to  read  the  histories  of  his  own  and  other  countries, 
by  which  he  may  duly  appreciate  the  value  of  our  free  institutions, 
appears  to  be  an  object  of  vital  importance  on  this  account  alone, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  advantages  and  satisfaction  to  be  derived  from 
being  able  to  read  the  Scriptures  and  other  works,  both  of  a  religious 
and  moral  nature,  for  ourselves.  For  my  part,  I  desire  to  see  the 
time  when  education,  and,  by  its  means,  morality,  sobriety,  enter- 
prise and  industry,  shall  become  much  more  general  than  at  present, 
and  I  should  be  gratified  to  have  it  in  my  power  to  contribute  some- 

1  From  the  "Memorial  to  the  Legislature"  adopted  in  1834  by  the 
Common  School  Convention.  Quoted  in  full  in  Sixteenth  Biennial  Report 
of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of  Illinois  (1885-86),  p.  cxxi. 

3  Illinois  Senate  Journal,  Qth  General  Assembly,  December  3,  1834, 
p.  23.  See  also  Appendix  I,  doc.  i,  p.  354  of  this  volume. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  A  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM         29 

thing  to  the  advancement  of  any  measure  which  might  have  a  tend- 
ency to  accelerate  the  happy  period.1 

Fortunately  the  "friends  of  education"  were  rewarded  by 
one  substantial  measure  of  progress  during  the  decade  1830-40 
— the  enactment  of  a  special  school  law  for  Chicago.2  This 
statute,  which  became  a  law  in  February,  1835,  provided  for 
free  schools,  which  were  to  be  supported  by  an  annual  tax  levy 
"sufficient  to  defray  the  necessary  expense  of  fuel,  rent  of 
schoolroom,  and  furniture."  The  school  trustees  were  given 
authority  also  to  levy  and  collect  such  additional  taxes  as  were 
voted  by  a  majority  of  the  legal  voters  of  the  district.3  At  this 
time  Chicago  had  a  population  of  more  than  four  thousand  and 

1  Quoted  in  Cook,  op.  cit.,  p.  43. 

3  An  act  relating  to  schools  in  Township  Thirty-nine,  North  Range 
Fourteen  East  (Illinois  Session  Laws,  1835,  p.  161). 

3  The  most  important  provision  of  this  law  was  the  folio  whig:  "The 
legal  voters  in  each  school  district,  shall  annually  elect  three  persons  to  be 
Trustees  of  Common  Schools,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  ....  to  see  that  the 
schools  are  free,  and  that  all  white  children  in  the  district  have  an  oppor- 
tunity of  attending  them The  said  Trustees  shall  annually  levy 

and  collect  a  tax  sufficient  to  defray  the  necessary  expense  of  fuel,  rent  of 
schoolroom,  and  the  furniture  for  the  same;  and  they  shall  levy  and  collect 
such  additional  taxes  as  a  majority  of  the  legal  voters  of  the  district,  at 
a  meeting  called  for  that  purpose  shall  direct;  Provided,  that  such  addi- 
tional taxes  shall  never  exceed  one  half  of  one  per  cent  per  annum  upon  all 
the  taxable  property  in  the  district;  all  of  which  taxes  the  said  Trustees 
shall  have  full  power  to  assess  and  collect." — Ibid.,  sec.  4,  p.  161. 

In  1849  the  annual  report  of  the  School  Inspectors  described  the  progress 
made  since  1840  as  follows:  "Since  the  organization  of  our  public  schools 
in  the  autumn  of  1840,  there  has  been  a  change  unparalleled  in  the  school 
history  of  any  western  city.  Then  a  few  miserably  clad  children,  unwashed 
and  uncombed,  were  huddled  into  small,  uncleanly  and  unventilated  apart- 
ments, seated  upon  uncomfortable  benches Now,  the  school  reports 

of  the  township  show  the  names  of  nearly  2,000  pupils,  two-thirds  of  whom 
are  in  daily  attendance  in  spacious,  ventilated,  well-regulated  schoolrooms. 
....  The  scholars  are  neat  in  person  and  orderly  in  behavior  .... " — 
Quoted  hi  Cook,  op.  cit.,  p.  461. 


30     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

had  seven  schools.  As  several  of  these  were  supported  in  part 
by  appropriations  made  from  the  school  fund  of  the  town,  they 
were  properly  called  public  schools.1  The  interest  from  the 
township  school  fund  was  apportioned  among  the  several 
teachers  of  the  town  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  days  of 
school  attendance  by  the  pupils  registered  in  the  school.  But 
no  teacher  could  be  paid  unless  a  certificate  was  presented  show- 
ing that  he  had  "given  gratuitous  instruction  to  all  such  orphans 
and  children  of  indigent  parents  residing  in  the  vicinity,  as  had 
been  presented  for  that  purpose."2 

The  "friends  of  popular  education"  and  the  "friends  of  the 
common  schools"  were  very  active  during  the  decade  1840-50. 
In  fact,  it  may  be  said  that  during  the  entire  period  between  the 
repeal  of  the  free  school  law  in  1827  and  the  enactment  of  the 
law  of  1855,  which  placed  the  public  school  system  on  a  firm 
basis,  the  cause  of  popular  education  was  the  subject  of  a  con- 
stantly growing  public  agitation.  The  societies  already  men- 
tioned held  frequent  meetings  and  did  their  best  to  arouse  an 
interest  in  the  cause  of  free  education.  The  burning  question 
that  agitated  the  state  was  "shall  the  property  of  the  state 
be  taxed  to  educate  the  children  of  the  state?"  and,  strange 
as  it  may  seem  to  readers  of  the  present  day,  the  majority 
of  the  voters  of  the  state  continued  to  give  a  negative 
answer. 

There  were,  however,  influences  operating  between  1840-50, 
and  even  earlier,  to  further  the  cause  of  free  schools.  The 
rapid  increase  in  population,  which  was  almost  phenomenal  in 
the  two  decades  between  1830  and  1850,  went  along  with  a 

1  Second  Biennial  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of 
Illinois  (1857-58),  p.  295.  It  should  perhaps  be  noted  that  Chicago  did 
not  become  a  city  until  two  years  after  the  passage  of  the  special  school  act 
of  1835.  In  1839  another  special  act  relating  to  the  common  schools  of 
Chicago  was  passed  by  the  legislature. 

3  Fourth  Annual  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  Public  Schools  of 
Chicago,  Year  Ending  February  i,  1858,  p.  7. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  A  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM         31 

rapid  increase  in  wealth,  which  meant  the  breakdown  of  the 
most  important  obstacle  in  the  way  of  school  taxes.  Added 
to  this  was  the  very  important  fact  that  many  of  the  new  settlers 
of  this  period  came  from  eastern  states  where  they  had  grown 
accustomed  to  a  free  school  system  supported  by  taxation. 
In  May,  1841,  however,  it  was  estimated  that  more  than  one- 
half  of  the  children  of  the  state  did  not  attend  school  at  all  and 
that  most  of  the  schools  were  not  in  session  more  than  thirty 
days  in  the  year.1 

In  the  year  1841  the  Illinois  Education  Society  met  at 
Springfield  and  in  a  memorial  to  the  General  Assembly  made 
the  very  moderate  proposal  that  a  majority  of  three-fourths  of 
the  legal  voters  of  a  township  should  be  permitted  to  levy  a 
tax  "to  a  limited  amount"  for  school  purposes.  "What  evils," 
it  was  asked,  "could  grow  out  of  trusting  three-fourths  of  the 
people  of  a  township  with  the  liberty  of  thus  acting  for  them- 
selves, in  behalf  of  the  education  of  their  children?"2  But 
although  a  new  school  law  was  passed  in  1841,  it  failed  to  make 
the  necessary  provision  for  taxation.3 

1  Sixteenth  Biennial  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction 
of  Illinois  (1885-86),  p.  cxl. 

3  Illinois  Reports  to  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  1840-41, 
Vol.  II,  p.  151.  See  Appendix  I,  doc.  3,  p.  360  of  this  volume  for  other 
proposals  contained  in  this  memorial,  the  demand  for  a  state  superintend- 
ent, etc. 

3  The  enacting  clause  of  this  law  is  of  interest  and  shows  a  willingness 
to  provide  for  the  education  of  the  children  of  the  state  in  so  far  as  it  could 
be  done  from  the  school  lands  and  without  any  additional  taxation  for  this 
purpose. 

"Be  it  enacted  by  the  People  of  the  State  of  Illinois  represented  in  the 
General  Assembly:  That  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  and  sustaining 
common  schools  throughout  the  State,  and  taking  care  of  and  using  the 
resources  of  the  State  held  for  purposes  of  education,  the  following  sections 
and  provisions  shall  take  effect  as  the  law  of  this  State  on  the  first  day  of 
July  next." — An  act  making  provision  for  organizing  and  maintaining 
common  schools.  In  force  July  i,  1841:  Laws  of  Illinois,  Twelfth  General 
Assembly,  1840-41,  p.  259. 


32     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

In  the  autumn  of  1844  a  convention  of  the  "friends  of  edu- 
cation" was  held  at  Peoria,  and  an  attempt  was  made  to  organ- 
ize a  movement  to  demand  local  taxation  sufficient  to  maintain 
a  free  school  in  every  district  during  a  school  term  of  not  less 
than  three  months.1  Some  extracts  from  their  "Memorial 
in  Behalf  of  Public  Schools"  indicate  how  strong  was  the  oppo- 
sition to  a  school  tax  and  how  far  from  general  was  the  belief 
in  the  principle  of  free  state-provided  education.  Thus  the 
"Memorial"  says: 

We  come  now  to  consider,  finally,  the  one  great  requisite  of  the 

proposed  plan — Taxation We  come  out  frankly  and  boldly, 

and  acknowledge  the  whole  system — every  effort,  is  intended  only 
as  a  means  of  allurement  to  draw  the  people  into  the  grasp  of  this 

most  awful  monster — a  school  tax We  do  not,  however, 

propose  coercing  any  to  employ  him  who  prefer  to  let  him  alone. 
All  we  ask  is,  to  give  those  permission  to  use  him  who  are  so  inclined. 
Our  position  is,  that  taxation  for  the  support  of  schools  is  wise  and 
just — that  it  is,  in  fact,  the  only  method  by  which  the  deficiency  for 
defraying  the  expense  of  popular  education,  beyond  that  supplied 
by  the  public  funds,  can  be  equalised  amongst  those  who  should 
pay  it.2 

The  "Memorial"  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  the  pre- 
ceding legislature  a  bill  had  been  introduced  to  require  a  vote 
of  two-thirds  of  the  people  of  a  township  to  levy  a  school  tax, 

1 A  study  of  all  phases  of  the  educational  history  of  Illinois  is  obviously 
beyond  the  scope  of  this  chapter,  but  it  may  be  noted  that  the  convention 
of  "the  friends  of  education"  also  demanded  the  establishment  of  the 
offices  of  state  and  county  superintendent  of  schools.  However,  in  1834, 
in  a  report  made  to  the  General  Assembly  from  the  Committee  on  Education 
it  was  stated  that  as  yet  it  was  believed  to  be  inadvisable  to  appoint  a  state 
superintendent,  partly  because  of  the  "obvious  difficulty"  of  finding  a  suit- 
able person  for  such  an  office  and  partly  because  the  tune  had  "not  yet 
arrived  when  his  services  may  be  used  to  the  best  advantage." — Journal 
of  the  Senate,  1834-35,  pp.  4i9~33- 

3  Illinois  Reports  to  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  1844-45, 
Vol.  I,  p.  116.  See  also  Appendix  I,  doc.  5,  p.  363  of  this  volume. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  A  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM         33 

and  the  "Memorial"  earnestly  urges  that  such  a  decision  should 
rest  with  a  majority. 

Why  should  there  be  any  fear  of  abuse  under  the  law?  Cer- 
tainly there  is  no  danger  of  having  too  good  schools;  that  too  much 
will  be  paid  to  teachers;  or  that  money  will  be  squandered  by  those 
who  themselves  pay  it.  To  require  a  two-thirds  vote  looks  very 

much  as  though  one  or  all  of  these  results  were  to  be  feared 

In  other  public  measures,  it  is  considered  safe  to  trust  to  a  majority 
to  manage;  and  we  can  see  no  great  danger  in  education,  or  its  too 
rapid  promotion,  that  it  should  be  singled  out  to  be  used  with  caution. 

Accepting  the  principles  laid  down  in  this  memorial,  Gover- 
nor Ford  in  his  first  message  to  the  General  Assembly  in  1844 
spoke  of  the  subject  of  common  school  education  as  "of  the 
utmost  importance  to  the  well-being  of  the  people;  the  due 
provision  for  which  is  essential  to  the  perpetuity  of  enlightened 
republicanism,  and  absolutely  necessary  to  a  proper  and  just 
administration  of  our  democratic  institutions."  He  recom- 
mended no  definite  measure,  however,  except  the  establish- 
ment of  the  office  of  state  superintendent  of  schools  with  the 
duty  of  collecting  statistical  and  other  information  to  enable  the 
General  Assembly  to  legislate  "with  an  enlightened  judgment."1 

The  legislature,  however,  not  only  accepted  the  governor's 
recommendation  but  went  much  farther  and  in  1845  passed 
a  law  that  recognized  the  free  school  principle  by  providing  for 
local  taxation  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  any  school  district.2 

1  Illinois  Reports  to  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  1844-45 
Vol.  I,  p.  9.     See  also  Appendix  I,  doc.  6,  p.  368  of  this  volume. 

2  The  provision  with  regard  to  taxation  is  important  enough  to  quote. 
The  act  provided  that  on  the  first  Saturday  in  May  "legal  voters  of  the 
different  school  districts  of  this  state,  may  meet  together  at  some  central 
place  hi  their  respective  districts,  for  the  purpose  of  voting  for  or  against 
levying  a  tax  for  the  support  of  schools,  of  building  and  repairing  school 
houses,  or  for  other  school  purposes." — Sec.  84  of  "An  Act  to  establish  and 
maintain  common  schools,"  Laws  of  Illinois,  Fourteenth  General  Assembly, 
Session  1844-45,  p.  72. 


34     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

This  statute  also  contained  an  interesting  provision  prohibiting 
the  use  of  any  foreign  language  in  the  tax-supported  schools,  as 
follows:  "No  school  shall  derive  any  benefit  from  the  public  or 
town  fund  unless  the  text  books  used  in  said  schools,  shall  be 
in  the  English  language,  nor  unless  the  common  medium  of 
communication  in  said  schools  shall  be  the  English  language."1 

Two  years  later  an  attempt  was  made  by  the  state  super- 
intendent of  common  schools  to  ascertain  how  many  counties 
had  levied  school  taxes,  but  only  fifty-seven  out  of  the  ninety- 
nine  counties  of  the  state  replied  to  the  letter  of  inquiry  sent 
out,  and  in  only  twenty-one  of  these  counties  had  the  tax  been 
levied.  It  was  charged  that  the  large  property  owners  were 
most  strongly  opposed  to  the  assessment  of  taxes  for  school 
purposes.  They  were  able  to  educate  their  own  children 
without  public  assistance  and  were  unwilling  to  have  their 
property  taxed  for  the  education  of  the  children  of  those  who 
had  no  taxable  property.2 

Fortunately  the  energies  of  the  "friends  of  education" 
never  flagged.  A  great  common  school  convention  was  held 
in  1846  in  Chicago,  the  city  of  free  schools,  at  which  the  mayor 
presided.  There  was,  it  will  be  remembered,  a  special  law 
enabling  Chicago  to  tax  herself  for  school  purposes,  and  the 
school  system  which  had  been  established  was  looked  upon 
with  great  respect.  In  the  report  of  the  superintendent  of 
common  schools  to  the  General  Assembly  of  1846-47,  although 
the  shortcomings  of  the  school  system  of  Illinois  were  vigor- 
ously portrayed,  Chicago  was  pointed  out  as  an  example  to  be 
followed. 

In  the  county  of  Cook  alone  [the  superintendent  reported]  the 
inhabitants — deeply  impressed  with  the  importance  of  the  common 

1  Laws  of  Illinois,  Fourteenth  General  Assembly,  sec.  58,  p.  64. 

2  See  "Report  of  the  State  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools,  Jan- 
uary 22,  1847,"  m  Illinois  Reports  to  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives, 
Session  1846-47,  Vol.  II,  pp.  51-59. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  A  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM    35 

school  education — have  raised,  by  voluntary  taxation,  under  the  pro- 
vision of  the  law,  the  large  sum  of  five  thousand,  two  hundred  and 
four  dollars,  which  will  continue  and  increase  as  an  annual  tax;  and 
what  has  been  the  result  ?  Their  schools  are  in  a  most  flourishing 
condition.  They  have  erected  large  and  elegant  school-houses, 
procured  competent  and  accomplished  teachers,  and  have  two 
thousand  and  ninety-five  children  in  daily  attendance  at  these  nur- 
series of  learning.1 

The  legislature,  however,  moved  backward  rather  than 
forward  and  amended  the  law  of  1845  by  making  it  more  difficult 
to  secure  a  school  tax.  The  old  law  had  provided  for  a  tax 
levy  by  two-thirds  of  the  voters  who  attended  a  meeting  held 
for  this  purpose.  The  amended  law  provided  that  a  majority 
of  all  the  voters  of  the  district  must  approve  the  tax.  All 
voters  who  failed  to  attend  the  meeting  would  in  this  way  be 
counted  as  voting  in  the  negative.2 

But  the  right  of  every  child  to  a  free  common  school  edu- 
cation was  making  headway  against  the  property  owners  who 
were  so  unwilling  to  be  taxed.  In  a  report  issued  by  the  secre- 
tary of  state  acting  as  superintendent  of  common  schools  it 
was  urged  as  a  duty  upon  every  citizen  in  the  state  "to  erect 
upon  a  permanent  basis,  a  plain  practical  system  of  free  com- 
mon schools."  It  was  estimated  that  there  were  only  schools 
enough  for  about  three-fifths  of  the  children  of  the  state,3 
although  state  pride  necessitated  the  comforting  reflection 
that  Illinois  "in  the  establishment  of  her  system  of  schools  was 
far  in  advance  of  any  of  the  states  at  a  similar  period  of  their 

1  "Report  of  the  State  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools,  January 
22,  1847,"  p.  n,  in  Illinois  Reports  to  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives, 
Session  1846-47,  Vol.  II,  pp.  49-97.  See  also  Appendix  I,  doc.  7,  p.  369 
of  this  volume. 

a  "An  act  to  establish  and  maintain  common  schools,"  February  12, 
April  i,  1849.  Laws  1849,  p.  177. 

3  Appendix  to  the  "Report  of  the  State  Superintendent  of  Common 
Schools,  March  i,  1848,"  in  Reports  to  the  Sixteenth  General  Assembly  of 
Illinois,  Convened  January  i,  1849,  p.  109. 


36     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

history."  On  January  i,  1849, the  day  beginning  the  sixteenth 
session  of  the  General  Assembly,  the  friends  of  popular  edu- 
cation held  a  great  convention  at  the  state  capitol,  and  at  a 
public  meeting  held  in  the  House  of  Representatives  a  great 
audience  passed  a  resolution  declaring  "that  the  property 
of  the  state  should  be  taxed  to  educate  the  children  of  the 
state." 

It  was  seven  years,  however,  before  this  principle  was  finally 
embodied  in  a  free  school  law,  and  a  persistent  organized  effort 
to  secure  public  understanding  of  the  educational  needs  of  the 
state  was  necessary  during  these  intervening  years.  Governor 
French  discussed  the  subject  in  his  first  message  to  the  seven- 
teenth General  Assembly  in  1851,'  and  the  superintendent  of 
schools  in  a  report  to  the  same  session  of  the  General  Assembly 
pointed  out  the  futility  of  the  current  systems  of  levying  school 
taxes. 

1  See  Reports  to  the  Seventeenth  General  Assembly  of  Illinois,  Convened 
January  6,  1851,  p.  22.  Governor  French,  however,  deals  especially  with 
the  question  of  school  administration  instead  of  with  the  necessary  but 
unpopular  school  tax: 

"  What  seems  now  mostly  needed  is  a  competent  number  of  thoroughly 
educated  school  teachers,  to  give  practical  efficiency  to  our  common  school 
system.  Without  these,  it  is  the  merest  folly  to  expect  to  confer  that  edu- 
cation upon  the  children  of  this  state  which  is  demanded  by  our  efforts  and 
our  resources.  If  greater  caution  were  observed  to  secure  competent 
teachers  and  superintending  officers,  such  as  would  discharge  their  duty 
properly  under  the  laws,  there  would  be  less  demand  for  perpetual  changes 
and  modifications  of  the  school  laws,  and  the  defects  imagined  as  incident 
to  them  would  vanish.  One  great  drawback  upon  the  efficient  working  of 
our  common  school  system,  is  the  want  of  an  energetic  and  industrious 
supervision  of  the  affairs  of  each  school.  To  this  end,  there  is  required  the 
labor  of  a  person  in  each  county  who  shall  give  his  earnest  attention  to  the 
matter,  instead  of  treating  it  as  a  subordinate  consideration.  It  is  this 
alone  which  will  make  our  school  system  what  it  ought  to  be.  I  can  dis- 
cover no  better  plan  to  answer  this  purpose,  than  to  require  the  several 
county  courts  to  see  that  this  important  duty  is  well  attended  to,  and  com- 
pel the  county  to  provide  for  it  accordingly." 


STRUGGLE  FOR  A  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM         37 

A  majority  of  all  the  legal  voters  of  any  school  district  [he  said] 
is  now  required  to  levy  a  tax  for  building,  furnishing  or  repairing 
schoolhouses,  or  for  the  support  of  schools.  Experience  has  shown 
that  great  difficulty  generally  exists  in  inducing  a  sufficient  number 
to  assemble  together  to  secure  any  efficient  action.  Mere  absence 
on  the  part  of  a  few  may  defeat  the  most  necessary  objects;  and  it 
has  been  found  next  to  impossible  to  make  a  legal  assessment.  It  is 
submitted  whether  it  would  not  be  better  to  allow  a  majority  present 
at  any  meeting,  legally  convened,  to  determine  the  question  of  levying 
such  a  tax.1 

In  1853  Governor  Matteson  in  his  inaugural  message  to  the 
eighteenth  General  Assembly  recommended  the  "entire  repeal 
of  all  laws  regulating  common  schools,  and  the  adoption  of  a 
simple  system,  plain  in  its  provisions,  supported  by  a  tax  upon 
property,  when  the  school  fund  is  not  sufficient  for  such  pur- 
pose, and  made  free  to  all  alike." 

Others  steps  led  rapidly  to  this  end.  In  the  same  year  the 
secretary  of  state,  still  acting  as  superintendent  of  common 
schools,  presented  an  interesting  report  to  the  legislature  in 
which  he  set  forth  that — 

the  sum  raised  by  an  ad  valorem  tax,  for  the  support  of  schools  in 
46  counties,  is  reported  to  be  $51,101 . 14.  A  large  proportion  of  this 
has  been  applied  to  the  building  and  repair  of  schoolhouses,  but  little, 
comparatively,  and  that  only  in  a  few  counties,  having  been  devoted 
to  the  payment  of  teachers  and  the  general  support  of  schools.  In 
20  counties  out  of  74,  no  such  tax  was  levied,  and  the  commissioners 
of  8  counties,  hi  consequence  of  the  default  of  the  township  treasurers, 
were  able  to  communicate  nothing  relative  thereto.3 
The  report  says  further, 

'"Biennial  Report  of  the  State  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools 
for  1849-50"  (David  Gregg,  Superintendent),  p.  15,  in  Reports  to  the  Seven- 
teenth General  Assembly  of  Illinois,  Convened  January  6,  1851,  pp.  82-95. 

'"Biennial  Report  of  State  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools  for 
1851-52"  (David  Gregg,  Superintendent),  p.  7,  in  Reports  to  the  Eighteenth 
General  Assembly  of  Illinois,  Convened  January  j,  1853,  pp.  144-242. 


38     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Under  the  law  as  it  now  stands,  a  majority  of  the  legal  voters  of 
districts  ....  have  it  in  their  power,  by  a  majority  of  voters,  to 
levy  a  tax  for  the  support  of  schools,  thus  enabling  them,  if  they  see 
proper,  to  avail  themselves  of  all  the  advantages  of  free  schools.  I  am 
not  aware  that  in  a  single  instance  this  has  been  done,  nor  can  any 
motive  be  assigned  for  the  action  ....  unless  a  preference  for  the 
system  which  now  prevails. 

In  1854  the  office  of  state  superintendent  of  public  instruc- 
tion was  separated  from  that  of  the  secretary  of  state,  and 
Ninian  W.  Edwards,  son  of  a  former  governor  of  the  state, 
became  the  first  holder  of  the  new  office  thus  created.  In  his 
first  report  to  the  General  Assembly,  written  December  10, 

1854,  he  vigorously  urged  as  a  "first  principle  that  education 
should  be  supported  by  a  tax  on  property,"  which  would  give 
"to  every  child  of  the  state  a  right  to  be  educated  and  to  all 
an  equal  right."1 

The  free  school  law  of  1855  followed.  This  law  provided 
for  a  state  school  tax,  for  unrestrained  local  taxation,  and  for 
a  free  school,  in  every  district,  during  six  months  in  the  year. 
The  opposition  to  the  free  school  system  had  been  especially 
hostile  in  the  southern  counties  of  the  state,  and  only  the  pro- 
vision of  a  state  tax,  by  which  the  contribution  of  the  richer 
counties  was  shared  with  the  poorer  counties,  enabled  the  bill 
to  pass.  "If  those  fellows  up  north  want  to  pay  for  schools 
down  here  we'll  let  'em,"2  a  representative  from  the  southern 
part  of  the  state  is  reported  to  have  said. 

1  "Biennial  Report  of  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,"  in 
Reports  to  Nineteenth  General  Assembly  of  Illinois,  Convened  January  I, 

1855,  p.  73.    See  also  Appendix  I,  doc.  10,  p.  372  of  this  volume. 

2  The  truth  of  this  statement  appears  in  the  returns  of  the  school  tax 
levy.     During  the  first  year  Cook  County  paid  $65,150.31  in  school  taxes 
and  received  on  distribution  $29,185.02;   while  Williamson  County  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  state  paid  $1,737.04  and  received  back  $4,917.25; 
Sangamon  County  paid  in  $23,132  and  received  back  $11,027;    White 
County  paid  in  $2,579  and  received  back  $5,409;    Pope  County  paid  in 
$5,055  and  received  back  $4,239;    and  Hardin  County  paid  in  $894  and 
received  back  $2,417. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  A  FREE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM         39 

The  state  of  Illinois  had  finally  realized  the  necessity  of 
educating  its  children,  but  the  provision  of  free  schools  was 
soon  discovered  to  be  only  one  step  toward  this  end.  It  was 
recognized  by  the  friends  of  universal  education  that  a  com- 
pulsory attendance  law  was  necessary  to  compel  all  children 
to  attend  the  free  schools  that  were  provided  for  them  by  the 
state. 


CHAPTER  in 

THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  A  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE  LAW  IN 
ILLINOIS,  1855-83 

Between  the  year  1855,  when  the  free  school  act  was  passed, 
and  the  year  1883,  when  school  attendance  was  made  com- 
pulsory, there  were  comparatively  few  changes  hi  the  school 
law.  The  law  of  1855  became  effective  only  very  gradually. 
The  establishment  of  an  adequate  school  system  was  inevitably 
a  slow  process  even  after  state  taxes  for  this  purpose  were 
forthcoming.  Governor  Matteson  hi  his  message  to  the  General 
Assembly  on  the  first  of  January,  1857,  reported  with  satis- 
faction that  there  were  "few  individuals  who  deny  the  principle 
that  the  property  of  the  country  should  educate  its  children." 
He  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  number  of  children 
enrolled  in  the  schools  of  Illinois  had  increased  from  136,371 
in  1853  to  312,393  in  1856,  and  he  described  this  change  hi  the 
school  enrolment  as  "one  of  the  most  interesting  and  immedi- 
ate effects  of  the  new  law"  and  declared  further  that  the  results 
proved  "conclusively  that  a  new  era  is  begun  in  the  education 
of  the  state." 

The  effect  of  the  new  free  school  law  may  be  illustrated  by 
the  changes  that  took  place  hi  the  school  situation  in  Peoria, 
a  town  hi  central  Illinois,  which  had  hi  1860  a  population  of 
14,045.  In  1855  there  were  four  ungraded  "public  schools" 
in  the  town;  the  teachers  were  paid  according  to  the  number  of 
pupils  enrolled,  and  consequently  each  teacher  admitted  to  his 
school  all  who  wished  to  enter,  without  regard  to  age  or  pre- 
vious schooling.  Moreover,  the  tuition  at  these  so-called 
"public  schools"  was  so  high  as  to  exclude  "many  of  the  poorer 
children  and  the  children  of  those  who  did  not  sufficiently 

40 


STRUGGLE  FOR  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE  LAW    41 

appreciate  the  advantages  of  learning  and  school  discipline  to 
their  offspring."  It  was  said  that  three-fourths  of  all  the 
children  attending  school  in  Peoria  were  in  private  schools,  and 
the  public  schools  were  looked  upon  "as  fit  only  for  the  poor, 
and  to  be  shunned  by  all  who  were  able  to  pay  the  high  tuition 
of  the  private  institution."  Three  years  after  the  free  school 
law  of  1855  had  been  passed,  the  superintendent  of  city  schools 
reported  that  over  $10,000  a  year  had  been  expended  for  build- 
ings and  sites  but  that  it  had  not  yet  been  found  possible  to 
make  the  schools  "wholly  free,  dependent  only  on  money  raised 
by  taxation  for  their  support."  It  was  claimed  that  the 
tuition  fee  of  one  dollar  a  term  was  collected  only  from  those 
"able  to  pay."  "The  poor,"  it  was  reported,  "have  been 
allowed  to  send  free,  where  it  was  supposed  that  otherwise  their 
poverty  would  exclude  their  children  from  the  schools."1 

On  the  whole,  the  response  that  came  from  the  people  after 
the  passage  of  the  free  school  law  showed  that  they  heartily 
approved  it.  Within  six  years  after  the  passage  of  the  law,  the 
number  of  schools  with  the  required  six  months'  term  had 
increased  from  7,283  to  8,406;  the  number  of  districts  having 
no  schools  at  all  had  diminished  from  850  to  649;  leaving  288 
districts  with  schools  open  for  a  shorter  term  than  the  law  pre- 
scribed. Ninety-four  per  cent  of  all  the  school  districts  of  the 
state  had,  according  to  the  report  of  the  state  superintendent 
of  public  instruction,  fully  complied  with  the  provisions  of  the 
law  even  with  regard  to  the  duration  of  the  school  term.8 

The  effect  of  the  new  law  in  Chicago  is  of  special  interest. 
In  1855  improvements  in  the  school  system  of  this  city  were 
being  made  under  John  C.  Dore,  a  new  superintendent  of 
schools.  But  a  school  system  utterly  lacking  in  organization 

1  Second  Biennial  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of 
Illinois  (1857-58),  pp.  31-33  of  the  Appendix. 

3  See  Fourth  Biennial  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction 
of  Illinois  (1861-62),  pp.  5-21. 


42     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

could  be  improved  only  gradually.  The  chaos  that  existed 
prior  to  this  time  may  be  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  under  Mr. 
Core's  superintendency  teachers  were  for  the  first  time  pro- 
vided with  class  books  and  required  to  register  the  names  of 
their  pupils  and  to  keep  attendance  records.  During  the  earlier 
period  without  any  registers  either  of  admissions  or  of  discharges, 
it  had  been  impossible  to  tell  what  pupils  were  even  supposed  to 
be  attending  school.  The  new  law  brought  about  a  great  and 
sudden  increase  in  school  attendance.  In  1856  the  super- 
intendent reported  that  in  spite  of  increased  accommodations1 
the  public  schools  were  crowded  with  pupils,  and  he  estimated 
that  there  were  still  "at  least  3,000  children  in  the  city  who  were 
utterly  destitute  of  school  instruction,  or  any  equivalent  for  it." 
During  the  years  1856  and  1857,  4  new  schoolhouses  were  con- 
structed to  provide  for  about  2,500  additional  school  children, 
but  the  superintendent  reported  that  there  were  still  "hundreds 
of  children  who  could  not  be  accommodated  with  seats." 

There  was  another  serious  aspect  to  the  situation  that  was 
just  beginning  to  receive  attention.  Not  only  were  there  still 
large  numbers  of  unenrolled  children,  but  the  children  who  were 
enrolled  attended  school  very  irregularly.  The  state  super- 
intendent of  public  instruction  reported  that  the  average  attend- 
ance in  Chicago  schools  was  only  31  per  cent  of  the  enrolment. 
With  regard  to  the  new  problem  of  non-attendance,  contempo- 
rary school  reports  show  that  the  large  number  of  unenrolled  and 
non-attending  children  was  attributed  to  the  "changing  char- 

1  In  1855  there  were  9  public  schools  and  42  teachers  with  about  6,826 
pupils.  It  is  of  interest  that  the  highest  salary  paid  to  a  man  teacher  was 
$1,200  and  to  a  woman  $400.  Fifteen  years  earlier,  in  1840,  Chicago  had 
only  4  teachers,  all  men;  in  1845  the  first  public  school  building  was  erected 
(on  Madison  between  Dearborn  and  State);  in  1846  there  were  10  teachers, 
6  of  whom  were  women;  in  1850,  24  teachers,  20  of  whom  were  women; 
at  this  time  Chicago  had  a  population  of  30,000  people.  See  Report  of  the 
Board  of  Education  of  Chicago,  1855,  pp.  22,  23;  see  also  J.  W.  Cook,  Edu- 
cational History  of  Illinois,  pp.  460-62. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE  LAW    43 

acter  of  the  population."1  There  was  much  concern  over  the 
situation,  but  the  only  method  of  meeting  the  problem  of 
irregularity  of  attendance  was  suspension  from  school — a 
remedy  that  was  obviously  worse  than  the  evil  it  was  designed 
to  cure.  Although  the  attention  of  those  responsible  for  the 
management  of  school  affairs  was  being  gradually  concentrated 
on  the  importance  of  getting  all  the  children  enrolled  in  the 
new  schools  and  of  insuring,  through  regularity  of  attendance, 
proper  returns  from  the  public  investment  in  free  education, 
there  was  no  attempt  made  as  yet  to  secure  a  compulsory 
attendance  law.  Such  changes  as  were  made  in  the  school  law 
during  this  period  related  rather  to  the  management  of  the 
school  fund,  the  election  of  school  commissioners,  the  duties  of 
state  and  county  superintendents  of  schools,  the  selection  of 
teachers  together  with  their  qualifications,  and  the  issuance 
of  certificates. 

But  there  is  evidence  that  the  absence  of  legislation  did 
not  mean  that  conditions  were  considered  satisfactory  by  those 
who  were  directly  connected  with  the  schools.  As  early  as 
1862  the  state  superintendent  of  public  instruction  noted  in 

1  The  condition  of  the  poorest  children  in  a  large  city  before  the 
establishment  of  a  compulsory  law  is  almost  incredible  at  the  present  time. 
The  establishment  in  England  and  Scotland  of  the  "Ragged  Schools"  for 
the  vagrant  children  of  the  streets  was  followed  in  New  York  City  by  the 
founding  of  the  so-called  "Industrial  Schools"  of  the  Children's  Aid 
Society.  See  Charles  Loring  Brace,  The  Dangerous  Classes  of  New  York 
(New  York,  1872),  chap.  xii.  Thus  Mr.  Brace,  in  describing  the  "wild 
ragged  little  children"  for  whom  these  schools  were  founded,  says:  "Many 
were  ashamed  to  go  to  the  public  schools;  they  were  too  irregular  for  their 

rules The  police  were  constantly  arresting  them  as  vagrants 

Though  our  Free  Schools  are  open  to  all,  ....  vast  numbers  of  children 
are  so  ill-clothed  and  destitute  that  they  are  ashamed  to  attend  ....  or 
they  are  begging,  or  engaged  in  street  occupations,  and  will  not  attend,  or, 
if  they  do,  attend  very  irregularly."  For  an  account  of  the  difficulty  in 
compelling  such  children  to  attend  school  in  Chicago,  see  p.  61  and  p.  71 
of  this  volume. 


44     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

his  biennial  report  that  "the  evils  of  absenteeism  and  irregular 
attendance  are  among  the  most  serious  and  difficult  of  remedy 
of  any  encountered  in  the  administration  of  any  system  of 
common  schools.  While  the  former  injuriously  lessens  the 
number  of  scholars,  the  latter  as  perniciously  affects  the  schools 
themselves."1  In  the  annual  report  of  the  Chicago  Board  of 
Education  for  the  year  1864-65,  the  organization  of  a  "truant 
police"  system  is  suggested.  Although  the  schools  of  this  city 
were  at  that  time  greatly  superior  to  any  other  schools  in  the 
state,  it  was  said  that  a  large  number  of  children  were  enrolled 
each  month  and  that  10  per  cent  of  those  enrolled  one  month 
were  absent  the  next.  Moreover,  even  those  enrolled  for  a 
month  attended  irregularly  during  that  month,  and  trivial 
excuses  for  absence  were  noted.  It  was  also  pointed  out  that 
child  labor  was  a  serious  factor  in  depriving  children  of  the 
opportunity  of  attending  school,  and  in  1865  the  Eleventh 
Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago  sounded 
a  solemn  warning  on  this  subject.  "Many  a  child,"  it  said, 
"has  been  sacrificed  mentally  and  morally  as  well  as  physically 
to  the  pecuniary  interest  of  the  parent.  Every  effort  should 
be  made  to  secure  the  city  against  the  inroads  which  avarice 
and  carelessness  are  thus  making  upon  her  prosperity."2 

A  few  years  later,  the  state  superintendent  of  public  instruc- 
tion reported  that  it  was  undeniable  that  "after  the  most 
favorable  interpretation  of  the  statistics  that  truth  will  warrant, 
the  evil  of  absenteeism,  irregular  attendance,  and  truancy 
remains  one  of  gigantic  and  alarming  proportions."3  The 
necessity  of  making  school  attendance  not  only  free  but  com- 

1  Fourth  Biennial  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of 
Illinois  (1861-62),  p.  19. 

1  Eleventh  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago  (1864-65), 
p.  20. 

3  Seventh  Biennial  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of 
Illinois  (1867-68),  p.  45. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE  LAW    45 

pulsory  was  discussed  at  some  length  in  this  report.1  It  was 
pointed  out  that  the  "idea  of  compulsion"  might  be  found  in 
the  principle,  then  well  established,  "  that  a  state  has  a  just 
moral  claim  upon  so  much  of  the  property  of  the  people  as  may 
be  required  to  educate  its  children,  and  fit  them  for  usefulness 
as  good  citizens."  It  was  going  only  one  step  farther  to  urge 
that  "compulsory  school-tax  paying  ....  for  the  noble  pur- 
pose of  educating  and  uplifting  the  people"  ought  surely  to  be 
accompanied  by  a  provision  that  the  end  sought  should  not 
"fail  of  attainment  through  the  indifference  or  perverseness 
of  others.  The  hand  that  forcibly  takes  the  tax  money  from 
the  pocket  of  an  unwilling  non-resident  to  support  a  school  in 
a  distant  district  in  which  he  has  no  personal  interest  is  at  least 
as  rough  and  arbitrary  as  would  be  the  hand  that  forcibly  leads 

the  children  to  the  doors  of  the  schoolroom If  a  state 

may  enact  a  general  free  school  law,  it  may  see  that  its  supreme 
purpose  is  not  defeated."2 

A  step  forward  was  taken  by  the  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion of  1870,  which  provided  in  the  constitution  itself3  definite 
guaranties  for  the  new  school  system.  The  eighth  article  of  the 

1  See  Appendix  I,  doc.  n,  p.  375. 

3  For  further  and  more  detailed  discussion  of  consequences  of  such 
legislation,  see  Eighth  Biennial  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion of  Illinois  (1869-70),  p.  70.  In  the  following  year,  it  was  again  urged 
that  the  state  had  the  power  to  pass  a  compulsory  education  law.  The 
state  superintendent  reported  that  one  out  of  every  five  or  six  children  was 
not  enrolled  at  all — "not  in  school  for  so  much  as  one  day."  Moreover, 
of  those  who  did  attend,  only  65  per  cent  were  regular  attendants  during  the 
school  term,  short  as  it  then  was.  Many,  it  was  said,  were  "kept  at  home 
for  their  services  at  labor;  in  shops  and  factories,  upon  the  farm  and  in  the 
house " 

3  The  other  provisions  in  the  constitution  of  1870,  Article  VIII,  "Edu- 
cation," are  as  follows: 

"Sec.  2)  All  lands,  moneys,  or  other  property,  donated,  granted,  or 
received  for  schools,  college,  seminary  or  university  purposes,  and  the 


46     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

new  constitution  was  devoted  to  "education"  and  its  first 
section  laid  upon  the  General  Assembly  the  duty  of  providing 
"a  thorough  and  efficient  system  of  free  schools,  whereby  all 
children  of  this  state  may  receive  a  good  common-school 
education." 

By  1870,  then,  the  free  school  system  was  not  merely  estab- 
lished; it  was  accepted  without  question  and  provided  for  in 
the  fundamental  law  of  the  state.  At  this  tune,  too,  the  com- 
pulsory attendance  movement  was  making  headway.  In  1871 
a  bill  which  failed  to  pass  was  introduced  into  the  legislature 
providing  that  all  children  between  eight  and  fourteen  years 
of  age  should  be  compelled  to  attend  school  for  at  least  twelve 
weeks  of  the  school  year  and  that  attendance  should  be  con- 
secutive during  six  weeks  of  that  tune.  Already,  too,  the  states 
of  Arkansas  and  South  Carolina  had  incorporated  in  their 
constitutions  provisions  requiring  legislative  enactment  on  the 
subject  of  compulsory  school  attendance,  and  Missouri,  Nevada, 
North  Carolina,  Virginia,  and  other  states  had  constitutional 

proceeds  thereof,  shall  be  faithfully  applied  to  the  objects  for  which  such 
gifts  or  grants  were  made. 

"Sec.  3)  Neither  the  general  assembly  nor  any  county,  city,  town, 
township,  school  district,  or  other  public  corporation,  shall  ever  make  any 
appropriation  or  pay  from  any  public  fund  whatever,  anything  in  aid  of 
any  church  or  sectarian  purpose,  or  to  help  support  or  sustain  any  school, 
academy,  seminary,  college,  university,  or  other  literary  or  scientific  insti- 
tution, controlled  by  any  church  or  sectarian  denomination  whatever;  nor 
shall  any  grant  or  donation  of  land,  money,  or  other  personal  property  ever 
be  made  by  the  state  or  any  such  public  corporation,  to  any  church,  or  for 
any  sectarian  purpose. 

"Sec.  4)  No  teacher,  state,  county,  township  or  district  school  officer 
shall  be  interested  in  the  sale,  proceeds  or  profits  of  any  book,  apparatus 
or  furniture  used  or  to  be  used  in  any  school  in  this  state,  with  which  such 
officer  or  teacher  may  be  connected,  under  such  penalties  as  may  be  pro- 
vided by  the  general  assembly. 

"Sec.  5)  There  may  be  a  county  superintendent  of  schools  in  each 
county,  whose  qualifications,  powers,  duties,  compensation,  and  time  and 
manner  of  election,  and  term  of  office,  shall  be  prescribed  by  law." 


STRUGGLE  FOR  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE  LAW    47 

provisions  empowering  but  not  requiring  such  action  by  the 
state  legislature. 

In  the  meantime,  in  Illinois,  the  problems  of  truancy  and 
non-attendance  were  being  recognized  as  vitally  important. 
In  1872  the  state  superintendent  again  discussed  what,  he  said, 
had  come  to  be  looked  upon  as  "the  most  important  school 
question  of  modern  times" — the  question  of  how  the  children 
of  the  state  were  to  be  "protected  against  the  wrongs  and  evils 
of  illiteracy,  and  secured  in  their  educational  rights."  He  pointed 
out  that  at  last  the  state  had  "a,  free  school  system,  well  estab- 
lished, thoroughly  organized,  and  in  successful  operation"; 
it  was  therefore  possible  for  the  state  to  deal  with  the  question 
of  what  should  be  done  with  those  parents  or  guardians  who 
refused  to  send  their  children  to  school. 

There  is,  in  short,  much  evidence  to  show  that  the  evil  of 
non-attendance  was  very  great  and  that  it  was  believed  to  be 
on  the  increase.  It  was  said  that,  "  taking  all  those  portions 
of  the  state  from  which  reports  are  at  hand,  the  number  of 
children  who  are  even  enrolled,  in  any  given  year,  averages 
less  than  half  the  total  school-going  population."1  For  the 
first  time  probably  attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  the 
increase  of  immigration  made  compulsory  school  attendance 
"a  grave  necessity,"2  and  it  is  of  interest,  too,  that  elaborate 
arguments  were  presented  to  show  that  compulsory  school  at- 
tendance, or  "obligatory  education"  as  it  was  more  popularly 
called,  was  both  constitutional  and  expedient.  In  summarizing 
his  arguments  the  state  superintendent  made  the  following 
elaborate  statement: 

I  think  it  has  been  shown  that  the  legislative  department  may 
properly  intervene  to  prevent  those  who  have  control  of  children, 
from  compelling  or  permitting  such  children  to  grow  up  in  ignorance; 

1  Ninth  Biennial  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of 
Illinois  (1871-72),  p.  209. 

3  Ibid.,  pp.  224-25.     See  also  Appendix  I,  doc.  13,  p.  380  of  this  volume. 


48     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

that  such  intervention  is  not  an  abuse  of  powers  conferred,  nor  an 
unwarrantable  assumption  of  powers  not  granted;  that  it  is  no 
improper  invasion  of  personal  liberty,  nor  of  the  authority  and  rights 
of  parents,  since  it  merely  enforces  the  performance  of  parental  duty, 
which  cannot  be  regarded  as  an  infraction  of  rights;  that  it  is  not 
inconsistent  with  rational  freedom  of  conscience;  that  it  puts  the 
right  of  the  child  to  be  educated,  above  the  right  of  the  parent  to 
keep  it  in  ignorance;  that  it  protects  the  many,  who  do  educate  their 
children,  against  the  counteracting  influence  of  the  few,  who  will  not; 
that  it  shields  the  innocent  from  cruel  wrong,  since  starving  the  mind 
is  worse  than  abusing  the  body;  that  it  is  grounded  in  the  belief  that 
to  bring  up  children  in  ignorance  willfully  and  without  cause,  is 
a  crime,  and  should  be  treated  as  such;  that  such  conduct  on  the 
part  of  those  having  the  control  of  children,  being  a  fruitful  source 
of  criminality,  should  be  under  the  ban  of  legal  condemnation,  and 
the  restraint  of  legal  punishment;  that  the  allegations  as  to  the 
incompatibility  of  such  laws  with  the  nature  and  spirit  of  our  political 
system,  are  unfounded,  as  also  are  the  apprehensions  concerning  the 
assumed  harshness  and  severity  of  their  enforcement;  that  the 
operation  of  such  laws,  in  many  of  the  most  enlightened  states  of 
Europe,  is  an  indication  of  their  wisdom  and  beneficence,  affording 
an  example  that  may  be  safely  followed;  that  there  is  no  proof  that 
the  masses  of  our  people  are  opposed  to  such  legislation,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  general  enlightenment 
on  the  subject,  would  result  in  general  approval  of  the  measure; 
that  the  exclusively  voluntary  policy  has_been,  andjs,  but  partially 
successhUj_while  the  accelerated  influx  of  foreigners  renders  the 
~a3option  of  new  measures  oTeducation,  without  delay,  a  grave  politl- 
_cal_necessity;  that  the  proposed  legislative  intervention  is  but  an 
affirmance  of  the  irrefutable  truth,  that  if  it  is  right  to  tax  all  for  the 
education  of  all,  then  it  is  equally  right  to  see  that  all  are  educated; 
that  it  is  in  the  line  of  a  general  human  right,  and  of  a  fundamental 
right  of  children,  and  is  compulsory  only  as  that  right  must  be  pro- 
tected against  any  and  all  infringements;  that  it  is  required,  to  fully 
utilize  the  vast  resources  already  devoted  to  public  education,  and 
to  prevent  enormous  and  increasing  waste  of  money,  property,  and 
effort;  and,  finally,  that  it  is  demanded  by  the  clearest  principles  of 


STRUGGLE  FOR  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE  LAW    49 

justice  both  to  children  and  taxpayers — by  the  franchises  conferred 
and  implied  in  the  constitution — by  considerations  of  the  highest 
political  wisdom,  and  by  the  facts  and  exigencies  that  now  exist  in 
this  state,  and  hi  every  other  state  of  the  union.1 

Attention  has  already  been  called  to  the  fact  that  one  of 
the  early  methods  of  securing  attendance  of  children  at  school 
in  the  absence  of  a  compulsory  attendance  law  was  to  discipline 
the  non-attending  child  by  expelling  him  from  school  alto- 
gether. The  state  superintendent  gravely  pointed  to  this 
method  of  meeting  the  evil,  as  a  legitimate  one: 

A  scholar  may  lawfully  be  expelled  for  wilful  and  obstinate 
refusal  to  comply  with  any  reasonable  rule  or  regulation  in  regard  to 
absence  or  tardiness.  The  right  and  duty  of  directors  to  make  and 
enforce  such  regulations  as  will  secure  regularity  and  punctuality 
of  attendance  (those  prune  requisites  of  a  good  school)  have  been 
affirmed  by  several  of  our  circuit  courts,  and  by  the  supreme  courts 
of  many  states,  notably  and  recently  by  that  of  Iowa.  The  principle 
is  inherently  sound,  being  essential  to  the  accomplishment  of  the 
purpose  for  which  public  schools  exist;  and  it  may  be  considered  as 
now  well  settled  and  determined  by  the  highest  judicial  authority. 
All  that  is  required  of  directors  in  the  premises  is  prudence  and  good 
sense  hi  their  rules,  coupled  with  a  proper  regard  for  the  rights  and 
feelings  of  parents.  No  rule  or  requirement  on  the  subject  should  be 
so  framed  as  to  involve  any  needless  and  offensive  inquiry  into  the 
domestic  affairs  of  families.  Nothing  of  that  kind  is  necessary  to 
the  accomplishment  of  the  purpose  aimed  at.2 

The  superintendent  of  schools  in  Chicago  in  his  report  in 
1876  was  wise  enough  to  point  out  that  the  suspension  of  wilful 
non-attendants  was  only  "a  reward  for  their  truancy."  Atten- 
tion may  be  called,  in  passing,  to  the  fact  that  this  mode  of 
punishing  a  non-attending  child  is  not  yet  obsolete  and  that, 

1  Ninth  Biennial  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of 
Illinois  (1871-72),  pp.  224-25. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  125. 


50     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

unfortunately,  in  spite  of  our  "compulsory"  laws,  suspension  is 
still  sometimes  used  as  a  method  of  punishing  recalcitrant 
truants.  Recently,  for  example,  a  little  Greek  boy  who  had 
been  loitering  in  a  poolroom  for  several  days  was  brought 
into  Hull-House  by  an  officer.  A  resident  of  the  House  who 
knew  the  boy  and  knew  that  he  was  supposed  to  be  attending 
a  near-by  Greek  school  asked  why  he  was  not  there.  "  Because," 
he  said,  "the  Greek  schoolmaster  said  either  I  must  come 
always  or  else  I  should  never  come,"  and  he  had,  of  course, 
preferred  the  second  alternative. 

During  the  decade  1870-80  the  subject  of  compulsory  school 
attendance  was  earnestly  advocated  by  the  school  authorities, 
and  in  1879  the  newly  created  State  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics1 
began  the  long  struggle  for  a  child  labor  law.  As  early  as 
1877  the  legislature  had  attempted  to  regulate  child  labor 
by  passing  an  act  which  made  it  unlawful  for  anyone  having 
the  custody  of  a  child  under  fourteen  years  of  age  to  allow 
him  to  engage  in  occupations  "injurious  to  health  or  danger- 
ous to  life  or  limb."2  This  was  entitled  a  law  "to  prevent 
and  punish  wrongs  to  children,"3  and  was  designed  to  punish 
those  who  were  directly  promoting  the  dependency  or  delin- 
quency of  a  child  rather  than  to  regulate  child  labor  in 
general.  In  this  same  year,  however,  a  law  "providing  for  the 
health  and  safety  of  persons  employed  in  coal  mines,"  was  passed 
prohibiting  the  employment  in  coal  mines  of  boys  under  twelve 

1  Illinois  Session  Laws,  1879,  p.  61:    "An  act  to  create  a  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics  and  to  provide  for  a  Board  of  Commissioners  and  a  Sec- 
retary." 

2  Among  the  occupations  enumerated  were  "wire- walking,  dancing, 
begging,  or  peddling  ....  as  a  gymnast,  contortionist,  rider  or  acrobat 
....  or  vocation  injurious  to  the  health  or  dangerous  to  the  life  or  limb 
of  such  child"  (Session  Laws,  1877,  p.  90).    This  was  the  so-called  "Mendi- 
cant and  Acrobatic  act." 

3  Session  Laws,  1877,  pp.  90-91.     See  also   Revised   Statutes,  1885, 
chap.  38,  sec.  53,  p.  391. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE  LAW  51 

and  of  all  women  and  girls;  in  1879  the  age  limit  was  raised 
from  twelve  to  fourteen  for  illiterate  boys  and  in  1883  the  age 
was  raised  to  fourteen  for  all  without  regard  to  schooling.1 

The  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  in  its  first  biennial  report, 
pointed  out  the  necessity  of  a  general  child  labor  law  and  its 
corollary,  a  compulsory  education  law.  The  provisions  asked 
for  by  the  bureau  were,  however,  very  inadequate — the  pro- 
hibition of  the  employment  of  children  under  ten  in  factories 
and  stores  and  three  months'  schooling  each  year  for  all  children 
under  fourteen.  "The  people  of  this  state,"  said  the  report, 
"cannot  afford  to  allow  any  increase  of  ignorance  through  the 
failure  of  parents  and  guardians  to  provide  the  younger  gener- 
ation with  at  least  the  elements  of  that  education  which  is 
necessary  for  the  welfare  of  the  state  as  well  as  being  a  pre- 
requisite to  the  poorer  people  in  providing  for  themselves  and 
their  families  a  way  by  which  they  may  know  how  to  live 
better."2 

And  in  December,  1882,  the  bureau  again  called  attention 
in  its  second  biennial  report  to  the  urgent  necessity  of  making 
school  attendance  compulsory.  It  was  estimated  that  nearly 
25,000  children  between  the  ages  of  eight  and  fifteen  years, 
about  5  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  children  of  these  ages, 
were  not  attending  school  at  all;  it  was  also  estimated  that  about 
one-third  of  the  non-attending  children  were  kept  out  of  school 
to  work,  and  that  the  others  were  being  neglected  and  were 

1  Session  Laws,  1877,  p.  140;   ibid.,  1879,  P-  2O7>  ibid.,  1883,  p.  118; 
Revised  Statutes,  1885,  chap.  93,  sec.  6,  p.  822.    This  law  remained  sub- 
stantially unchanged   for  twenty  years.    In    1887,  age   affidavits  were 
required  of  the  boy's  parents.    Mine  inspectors  had  early  (law  of  1872, 
amended  1877)  been  provided  and  they  were  to  look  after  these  provisions 
along  with  others.    The  age  affidavit  was  to  be  kept  on  file  for  the  inspector 
to  see  if  he  wished  (Session  Laws,  1887,  p.  233;  Revised  Statutes,  1887,  chap. 
93,  sec.  6). 

2  First  Biennial  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  of  Illinois  for 
the  Year  Ending  January  12,  1881,  p.  237. 


52     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

becoming  delinquent.1    In  the  following  year,  1883,  the  first 
compulsory  education  law  of  Illinois  was  passed. 

More  than  twenty-five  years  of  agitation  had  been  necessary 
to  secure  legislation  providing  for  the  support  of  the  schools  by 
taxation.  In  the  quarter  of  a  century  that  followed  the  passage 
of  the  free  school  law,  the  principle  that  the  state  might  tax 
the  property  of  its  citizens  to  provide  for  the  education  of  its 
children  was  embodied  in  the  new  constitution  of  Illinois  and 
the  legislature  had  taken  another  important  step  in  advance 
by  recognizing  its  right  to  make  school  attendance  compulsory. 
But  much  remained  to  be  done.  It  was  left  for  the  next 
quarter  of  a  century  to  extend  the  provisions  of  the  com- 
pulsory law  and,  by  prohibiting  child  labor  during  the  period 
of  compulsory  school  attendance,  to  make  possible  its  enforce- 
ment. 

1  "Very  many  of  the  other  two-thirds  are  growing  up  not  alone  in 
ignorance  but  in  vice,  and  from  them  will  come  the  larger  part  of  our 
criminals;  for,  though  education  and  virtue  do  not  always  go  together,  the 
vicious  are  most  commonly  ignorant."  A  report  of  the  superintendent  of 
the  Pontiac  Reformatory  was  quoted  to  show  that  out  of  241  boys  con- 
nected with  the  Reformatory  in  the  two  years  preceding,  136  could  not 
write,  120  knew  nothing  of  arithmetic,  39  could  not  read,  and  124  others 
could  read  only  in  the  first  or  the  second  reader.  The  superintendent 
commented  that  "this  shows  a  bad  state  of  things,  when  we  consider  that 
the  average  age  of  the  boys  committed  was  fourteen  years  and  six  months" 
(Second  Biennial  Report  of  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  of  Illinois  (1882), 
P-  374). 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  COMPULSORY  SYSTEM,  1883-99 

The  first  compulsory  education  law  of  Illinois,  that  of  1883, 
was  entitled  "An  act  to  secure  to  all  children  the  benefit  of  an 
elementary  education,"  but  the  inadequate  provisions  of  the 
law  made  the  fulfilment  of  its  purpose  impossible.  All 
children  between  the  ages  of  eight  and  fourteen  were  required 
to  attend  school  for  a  period  of  twelve  weeks  each  year  unless 
excused,  and  children  could  be  excused  by  the  board  of  education 
or  the  school  directors  "for  any  good  cause."  No  provision 
was  made  for  the  enforcement  of  this  law  beyond  the  state- 
ment that  "any  taxpayer"  could  sue  the  board  of  education 
for  failure  to  enforce  it.1  It  was,  however,  made  a  defense 
to  any  suit  if  it  could  be  shown  (i)  that  the  child's  "mental 
or  bodily  condition"  prevented  school  attendance;  or  (2) 
that  the  child  had  "acquired  the  branches  of  learning  ordi- 
narily taught  in  public  schools";  or  (3)  that  no  public  school 
had  been  "taught  within  two  miles  ....  for  twelve  weeks 
during  the  year."  Within  a  few  years  the  failure  of  the  law 
to  effect  any  real  improvement  in  school  attendance  became 
apparent.  Friends  of  compulsory  education  did  not  hesitate 
to  declare  the  law  wholly  unsatisfactory;  and  in  1888  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education  declared  that  it  was 
"entirely  ineffective  and  practically  incapable  of  enforcement." 
At  this  time,  five  years  after  the  law  had  been  passed,  it  was 
estimated  that  in  the  state  of  Illinois  there  were  133,329  children 
under  fifteen  years  of  age  who  were  not  in  school,2  and  that 

1  Session  Laws,  1883,  p.  167. 

3  Eighteenth  Biennial  Report  of  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of 
Illinois  (1888-90),  p.  Ixxxiv. 

S3 


54     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

large  numbers  of  children  had  never  been  enrolled  in  school 
at  all. 

The  question  of  the  possible  enforcement  of  the  law  of  1883 
was  discussed  by  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education  in  1888.  A 
request  from  a  member  of  the  board  that  a  committee  be 
appointed  to  deal  with  the  question  of  its  enforcement  was 
referred  to  the  Judiciary  Committee.  This  request,  which 
was  submitted  by  a  foreign-born  member  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, Hon.  Charles  Kozminski,  was  as  follows: 

To  the  President  and  Members  of  the  Board  of  Education,  in  Session: 

In  the  year  1883,  the  State  of  Illinois  enacted  a  law  for  the  com- 
pulsory education  of  children  between  the  ages  of  eight  and  fourteen 
years.  This  law  makes  it  compulsory  upon  every  person  having  the 
control  and  charge  of  any  such  child  to  send  it  to  a  public  or  private 
school  for  a  period  of  not  less  than  twelve  weeks  in  each  school  year, 
unless  such  child  is  excused  from  attending  school  by  the  Board  of 
Education.  Under  this  law,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Board  of  Education 
to  prosecute  every  person  who  violates  the  law,  and  for  neglecting 
its  duty,  the  Board  of  Education  or  its  members  are  punishable  by 
fine.  In  the  City  of  Chicago,  large  numbers  of  children,  through  the 
selfishness,  neglect,  or  indifference  of  parents  and  guardians,  never 
see  the  inside  of  a  schoolroom,  but  grow  up  to  manhood  or  woman- 
hood without  the  training  and  education  so  necessary  in  a  republican 
form  of  government  and  so  essential  to  the  welfare  of  the  community. 
Therefore,  Be  it  Resolved,  by  this  Board,  that  a  Committee  of  three 
be  appointed,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  forthwith  to  confer  with  the 
authorities  of  the  City  of  Chicago,  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  the 
compulsory  education  law,  against  parents  and  guardians  who  violate 
the  same.1 

The  committee  to  which  the  resolution  was  referred  reported 
back  that  "in  the  opinion  of  the  committee"  the  law  of  1883 
was  not  "nugatory,  invalid,  or  inoperative"  as  had  been 
claimed.  Attention  was  called,  however,  to  the  lack  of  school 

1  Proceedings  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago,  September,  1888,  to 
August  g,  1889,  p.  41. 


GROWTH  OF  THE  COMPULSORY  SYSTEM  55 

accommodations,  and  it  was  pointed  out  that  "if  there  were 
enough  schoolhouses,  it  would  not  be  found  a  hard  task  to  get 
the  children  to  attend,"  but  that  the  law  could  not  possibly  be 
enforced  until  there  were  enough  schools  "  conveniently  located 
to  receive  pupils."  The  committee,  however,  although  it 
reported  that  very  little  could  be  accomplished  "in  the  way  of 
compelling  the  attendance  of  children  without  greater  facilities 
than  are  now  at  the  command  of  the  board,"  made  certain 
recommendations  in  the  belief  that  something  should  be  done 
"to  show  the  people  that  the  spirit  of  the  law  is  cordially 
recognized  by  the  board."  The  recommendations  included 
a  provision  for  publicity  regarding  the  requirements  of  the  law 
and  the  board's  intention  to  enforce  it  "where  practicable"; 
free  textbooks  for  indigent  pupils;  the  appointment  of  a  prose- 
cuting attorney;  some  provision  for  educating  pauper  children; 
the  assignment  of  teachers  to  charitable  or  correctional  insti- 
tutions for  children  on  request  of  the  authorities;  and,  finally, 
the  establishment  of  a  department  of  compulsory  education.1 

The  attention  given  to  this  subject  by  the  board  was 
undoubtedly  due  in  part  to  the  public  indignation  over  the 
failure  to  enforce  the  compulsory  education  law.  The  Chicago 
Woman's  Club  had  sent  to  the  board  a  petition  stating  that — 

WHEREAS,  The  appalling  increase  of  crime  among  youth,  the 
large  number  of  vagrant  children,  and  the  employment  of  child  labor 
in  the  city  of  Chicago  is  fraught  with  danger  to  the  commonwealth: 

Therefore,  We,  the  Chicago  Woman's  Club,  respectfully  ask  your 
honorable  body  immediately  to  take  the  necessary  measures  to  secure 
the  enforcement  of  the  Illinois  statute  of  1883,  providing  for  com- 
pulsory education. 

The  reply  to  the  petition  merely  stated  that  the  board  had 
the  question  of  compulsory  school  attendance  under  consider- 
ation. A  committee  of  the  board  was  appointed  to  consult  with 

1  Proceedings  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago,  September,  1888, 
to  August  Q,  1889,  p.  75. 


56     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

other  organizations  and  individuals  interested  in  the  subject  and 
to  draw  up  a  new  law  to  "  cover  all  the  requirements  of  the  case." 
This  committee  on  January  9,  1889,  reported  that  it  had  pre- 
pared a  digest  of  the  laws  of  the  different  states  relating  to 
compulsory  education  and  that  it  had  called  a  public  meeting 
"  to  which  members  of  the  committee  and  other  bodies  interested 
in  the  enforcement  of  the  compulsory  education  law"  were 
invited.  The  committee  also  reported  that  it  believed  that 
an  attempt  should  be  made  to  enforce  the  old  law  and  that  the 
mayor  had  said  that  he  "was  ready  to  direct  the  entire  police 
force  to  aid  in  the  enforcement  of  the  old  law  as  it  now  stands." 
Resolutions  were  adopted  at  this  same  board  meeting  providing 
for  the  appointment  of  three  attendance  officers,  one  for  each 
division  of  the  city,  who  were  to  be  under  the  immediate  direc- 
tion and  control  of  the  special  Committee  on  Compulsory  Edu- 
cation. These  attendance  agents  were  to  investigate  and  to 
report  cases  arising  under  the  Compulsory  Education  act,  and 
were  instructed  to  "make  daily  visits  to  the  police  station  in 
their  respective  districts  and  receive  the  police  reports  of  the 
names  and  addresses  of  the  children  apparently  between  the 
ages  of  eight  and  fourteen  years,  whom  the  police  have  found 
on  the  streets  during  the  school  hours  of  any  school  day."  The 
resolutions  further  declared  that  the  Board  of  Education  con- 
sidered it  the  duty  not  only  of  the  teachers  but  of  the  engineer 
and  janitor  of  every  school  to  report  to  their  principal  the  names 
and  addresses  of  all  children  between  the  ages  of  eight  and 
fourteen  years  hi  their  respective  school  districts,  who  were 
believed  not  to  have  attended  any  school  for  twelve  weeks 
during  the  preceding  school  year.  The  list  of  all  children  so 
reported  was  to  be  transmitted  by  the  principal  to  the  clerk 
of  the  board  at  the  close  of  each  week. 

Interest  in  the  subject  continued  to  increase  with  the  hope 
of  obtaining  a  more  satisfactory  law  from  the  legislature  then 
in  session,  and  on  January  19,  1889,  a  large  public  meeting  was 


GROWTH  OF  THE  COMPULSORY  SYSTEM  57 

held  in  Chicago  to  discuss  the  need  of  an  effective  compulsory 
system.  On  January  23, 1889,  at  the  request  of  the  committee 
on  Compulsory  Education,  the  board  voted  to  increase  the  num- 
ber of  attendance  agents  to  seven,  "three  of  whom  shall  be 
ladies";  a  clerk  to  "collate"  their  statistics  was  appointed,  and 
it  was  arranged  that  registers  should  be  supplied  to  each  of  the 
police  stations,  in  which  cases  brought  to  the  attention  of  the 
police  might  be  recorded. 

At  the  same  meeting  the  superintendent  of  schools  called 
attention  to  the  relation  between  non-attendance  and  child 
labor  and  reported  that,  as  a  result  of  the  agitation  regarding 
the  enforcement  of  the  compulsory  education  law,  some  em- 
ployers had  refused  to  continue  to  employ  boys  under  fourteen 
without  a  permit  from  the  Board  of  Education. 

A  few  months  later  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Com- 
pulsory Education  reported  to  the  Board  of  Education  that 
more  than  5,200  cases  of  non-attending  or  truant  children  had 
been  investigated  by  the  attendance  agents,  and  "that  notices 
had  been  sent  to  the  parents  of  173  children  who  had  failed  to 
comply  with  the  provisions  of  the  Compulsory  Education  act, 
and  that  these  cases  were  now  ready  for  prosecution."  These 
prosecutions,  however,  were  never  proceeded  with,  for  in  the 
meantime  the  movement  for  a  new  compulsory  education  law 
had  been  successful. 

Three  bills,  one  relating  to  compulsory  education,  another 
to  child  labor,  and  a  third  to  truant  children,  all  of  which  had 
been  adopted  at  a  citizens'  meeting  and  presented  to  the  Board 
of  Education,  were  later  indorsed  by  the  board  and  forwarded 
to  the  General  Assembly  at  Springfield.  The  child  labor  bill 
and  the  truant  bill  died  in  the  committee  room  at  Springfield, 
and  a  compulsory  education  bill  already  pending  in  the  legis- 
lature was  accepted  by  the  board  as  a  substitute  for  its  own  bill. 
This  substitute  measure,  which  became  a  law  on  July  i,  1889, 
was  unanimously  passed  by  the  Senate,  and  had  only  six  votes 


58     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

recorded  against  it  in  the  House.  The  new  law  was  considered 
far  from  satisfactory  by  those  who  desired  a  stringent  and  easily 
enforceable  statute,  but  it  was,  in  the  words  of  the  president  of 
the  Chicago  board,  accepted  "as  a  'lick  and  a  promise,'  "  in 
the  belief  that  attempts  to  enforce  it  would  demonstrate  the 
necessity  for  amendments.  The  president  also  pointed  out  the 
fact  that  the  necessary  provision  for  truant  children  and  for  child 
labor  regulation  which  had  been  demanded  by  the  board  had 
been  refused  by  the  legislature.  "They  properly  go  with  the 
compulsory  education  bill,"  he  declared,  "and  it  is  necessary 
to  have  them  passed  in  order  to  have  a  compulsory  education 
act  in  good  working  shape." 

The  new  law  of  1889  was  in  several  respects  much  better 
than  the  old  law  of  1883,  although  it  still  set  a  very  low  edu- 
cational standard.  The  total  period  of  compulsory  attendance 
was  increased  from  twelve  to  sixteen  weeks,  and  attendance 
was  required  to  be  consecutive  during  eight  weeks.  A  further 
improvement  was  contained  in  a  provision  requiring  the  board 
of  education  in  every  school  district  to  appoint  one  or  more 
truant  officers.  The  act  also  provided  that  children  might 
attend  not  only  public  schools  but  also  any  private  schools 
"approved  by  the  Board  of  Education,"  but  it  was  expressly 
stated  that  only  such  schools  as  taught  the  common  branches 
in  English  might  be  approved. 

In  Chicago  during  the  following  summer  careful  prepara- 
tions were  made  in  order  that  the  new  law  might  be  enforced 
when  the  school  term  began.  A  superintendent  of  compulsory 
education  and  twelve  attendance  agents  were  appointed. 
Special  circulars  explaining  the  law  to  parents,  to  school  princi- 
pals, and  to  employers  were  drawn  up  and  sent  out  by  the 
Board  of  Education.  Fifty-five  thousand  circulars  were 
printed  for  parents  and  guardians  in  seven  different  languages, 
German,  Italian,  Bohemian,  Swedish,  Polish,  Yiddish,  and 
Norwegian.  A  circular  letter  was  sent  to  the  principals  of  171 


GROWTH  OF  THE  COMPULSORY  SYSTEM  59 

private  and  parochial  schools  on  September  3,  asking  for  the 
list  of  children  of  compulsory  education  age  who  were  attending 
school;  but  up  to  November  13  only  thirty- two  replies  had 
been  received.1 

The  failure  to  pass  a  child  labor  law  left  open,  of  course,  the 
greatest  temptation  to  the  children  and  their  parents  to  dis- 
obey the  compulsory  education  law.  The  Board  of  Education 
recognized  this  difficulty,  and,  since  there  was  at  this  tune  no 
law  prohibiting  child  labor  except  in  the  mines  and  in  a  few 
especially  dangerous  occupations,  it  was  decided  to  make  an 
appeal  to  the  public  spirit  of  the  merchants  and  manufacturers 
who  employed  children  between  the  ages  of  seven  and  fourteen 
and  to  ask  their  aid  in  enforcing  the  new  law  and  in  getting 
these  children  into  school.  The  following  circular  was  there- 
fore sent  to  all  proprietors  of  shops,  stores,  and  factories,  and 
a  blank  was  inclosed  to  be  returned  to  the  board  with  the  names 
of  all  the  children  employed  in  any  establishment: 

The  object  of  this  circular  is  not  only  to  inform  you  that  the 
Compulsory  Education  Law  enacted  by  the  Legislature  of  the  State 
of  Illinois,  went  into  effect  July  i,  1889,  but  to  ask  your  hearty 
co-operation  during  the  coming  scholastic  year,  by  not  employing 
any  children  between  the  ages  of  seven  and  fourteen  years,  as  set 
forth  in  the  law. 

The  Board  respectfully,  yet  urgently,  desires  your  assistance  in 
this  direction  as  an  incentive  to  idle  and  pernicious  parents  and 
guardians,  that  they  shall  undertake  the  burden  of  labor  and  support 

1  The  text  of  the  letter  was  as  follows:  "In  order  to  carry  out  com- 
pletely the  Compulsory  Education  Law  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  as  enacted 
by  the  Legislature  and  now  in  force,  and  avoid  the  evasive  and  untruthful 
replies  of  children,  parents  or  guardians,  as  to  their  attending  other  than 
the  public  schools,  will  you  be  kind  enough  to  fill  up  the  accompanying 
blank  of  the  pupils  attending  your  schools,  between  the  ages  of  seven  and 
fourteen  years,  and  such  additions  as  may  occur  from  time  to  time?" — 
Proceedings  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago,  August  21, 1889,  to  July  p, 
1890,  p.  105. 


60     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

for  their  families,  and  permit  the  tender  children  to  attend  school  and 
receive  an  education  that  will  adapt  them  to  labor  more  intelligently 
and  with  increased  ambition 

Out  of  2,591  employers  to  whom  this  circular  was  sent  only 
300  sent  any  reply.  A  few  employers  expressed  disapproval 
of  the  law,  but  the  great  majority  of  those  who  replied  not  only 
assured  the  superintendent  of  schools  of  their  willingness  to 
obey  the  law  but  declared  their  sympathy  with  its  purpose  and 
provisions.1  A  further  step  toward  the  control  of  child  labor 
was  the  appointment  of  a  special  attendance  officer  for  work 
in  the  shops,  stores,  and  factories.  Unfortunately  the  children 
who  sold  newspapers  or  blacked  boots  on  the  streets  had  no 
employers  whose  co-operation  could  be  sought.  These  children 
who  were  most  in  need  of  help  were  then,  as  now,  protected 
with  the  greatest  difficulty. 

In  spite  of  the  efforts  made  by  the  Board  of  Education  to 
carry  out  the  provisions  of  the  law,  many  difficulties  were 
encountered  in  attempting  to  enforce  it.  Large  numbers  of 
people  could  not  be  made  to  believe  that  the  legislature  had 
the  power  to  compel  them  to  send  their  children  to  school. 
The  condition  of  many  of  those  children  who  were  brought  to 
school  under  compulsion  showed  how  disastrous  the  old  policy 
of  non-enforcement  had  been.  The  superintendent  reported, 
for  example,  that  3,528  children  were  "subjects  for  reform 
schools,"  and  the  Committee  on  Compulsory  Education  called 

1  It  is  of  interest  that  in  these  replies  from  employers,  according  to  the 
superintendent  of  compulsory  education,  "many  warm  encomiums  were 
expressed  upon  the  benefit  of  the  law,  with  the  assurance  that  it  would 
receive  their  hearty  support;  that  child  labor  should  not  be  permitted; 
that  education  was  the  salvation  of  the  Republic  and  that  they  would  not 
employ  children  between  the  ages  designated  in  the  law."  That  children 
were  extensively  employed  at  this  time  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  a  single 
mercantile  firm  reported  175  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age  employed 
in  its  establishment  (Proceedings  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago, 
August  21, 1889,  to  July  9, 1890,  p.  105). 


GROWTH  OF  THE  COMPULSORY  SYSTEM  61 

to  the  attention  of  the  board  "the  large  number  of  incorrigible 
children  and  the  necessity  of,  by  some  means,  providing  them 
with  at  least  the  rudiments  of  an  English  education."  The 
committee  reported  that  it  believed  that — 

this  class  of  unfortunates,  who,  either  from  improper  training  and 
unwholesome  surroundings  at  home,  or  from  an  unnatural  perversity 
of  disposition  evade  their  school  duties,  and  who,  when  brought  to 
school  by  the  attendance  agent,  cause  sufficient  disturbance  to  have 
their  absence  heartily  desired  by  the  teacher  and  principal  should 
be  placed  in  a  separate  room  or  building  and  under  a  different  system 
of  discipline. 

The  neglected  condition  of  some  of  the  non-attending  and 
truant  children  in  Chicago  at  this  tune  is  described  in  the  first  re- 
port of  the  superintendent  of  compulsory  education.  Many 
parents,  it  was  said,  regarded  their  children  "as  so  many  money- 
making  machines  and  kept  them  in  filth  in  order  to  create  sym- 
pathy for  them."  These  children,  it  was  said,  could  not  be 
reached  by  the  policy  of  moral  suasion  that  the  board  had  de- 
cided upon,  and  a  delegation  of  citizens  called  and  asked  that 
the  law  be  invoked  in  their  behalf. 

The  complaint  was  made  that  these  neglected  children  had 
become  so  lawless  and  undisciplined,  and  their  physical  condi- 
tion so  distressing,  that  their  presence  created  great  disorder 
in  the  schools  in  which  they  were  enrolled.  The  superintendent 
of  compulsory  education  thought  that  children  of  this  type 
were  not  fit  to  be  sent  to  school  with  other  children  and  that  an 
ungraded  school  or  room  was  needed,  where  they  could  be 
placed  until  they  acquired  habits  of  cleanliness  and  order  and 
until  the  danger  of  disturbing  the  discipline  of  the  schools 
might  be  removed.  Many  children  brought  in  from  the  streets 
and  alleys,  it  was  found,  were  "not  fitted  for  the  ordinary 
schoolroom,  being  physically  as  well  as  mentally  incapaci- 
tated by  their  previous  life  for  quiet  and  continuous  study." 


62     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Moreover,  these  children  soon  dropped  out  of  school  or  were 
suspended  for  misconduct. 

The  suggestion  of  an  ungraded  room  was  soon  followed  by 
a  demand  for  a  parental  school.  As  the  president  of  the  Board 
of  Education  said  in  his  annual  report: 

One  of  the  greatest  needs  of  the  city,  made  almost  imperative 
by  the  compulsory  law,  is  a  family  school  in  each  of  the  several  sec- 
tions of  the  city  with  facilities  for  some  simple  work,  as  well  as  study, 
under  the  charge  of  well-prepared  teachers,  in  which  the  little  waifs 
of  the  community,  now  growing  up  in  want  and  wickedness,  may  be 
tenderly  cared  for,  and  trained  to  habits  of  industry,  intelligence, 
and  honorable  citizenship. 

Nearly  a  decade,  however,  was  to  pass  before  the  legislature 
of  Illinois  passed  the  parental  school  law  that  was  so  urgently 
needed. 

The  report  of  the  work  of  the  new  truant  officers  during 
the  first  six  weeks  of  the  school  year  showed  that  the  officers 
had  investigated  the  cases  of  2,191  truant  and  2,691  non- 
attending  children,  a  total  of  4,882  children,  of  whom  only 
1,523  had  been  returned  to  school.  The  superintendent  was 
impatient  of  the  method  of  moral  suasion  and  thought  that  the 
law  should  be  invoked  to  punish  persistent  violators. 

This  much  had  been  accomplished  [he  reported]  without  invoking 
the  aid  of  the  law,  in  a  quiet  persuasive  manner;  but  there  is  another 
side  of  the  question.  There  are  a  very  large  number  of  children  who 
cannot  be  reached  without  the  aid  of  the  law.  Many  are  at  work 
hi  stores  and  factories  who  should  be  hi  the  schools,  who  have  no  valid 
cause  or  excuse  for  not  being  there,  not  even  poverty,  for  the  entire 
number  of  such  as  reported  are  only  265  cases  up  to  the  present  tune.1 

1  Proceedings  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago,  1889-90,  p.  106. 
The  following  extract  from  the  superintendent's  report  is  of  interest:  "One 
attendance  agent  reports  that  during  the  past  week,  no  reports  were  received 
whatever  from  six  schools.  This  would  indicate  that  truancy  is  on  the 
wane.  The  agent  claims  it  is  the  success  of  compulsory  education."  It 
may,  of  course,  have  been  the  indifference  of  the  principals. 


GROWTH  OF  THE  COMPULSORY  SYSTEM  63 

Much  to  the  surprise,  evidently,  of  the  superintendent, 
poverty  was  alleged  as  the  excuse  for  non-attendance  in  a  very 
small  number  of  cases. 

Throughout  the  year,  however,  the  policy  of  moral  suasion 
was  adhered  to  and  no  arrests  for  violating  the  compulsory 
education  law  were  made  in  Chicago.  The  Board  of  Education 
prided  itself  on  the  fact  that  there  had  been  "not  a  single 
instance  of  interference  with  parental  authority,  no  prosecution 
or  persecution."  This  policy  was  continued  during  the  next 
year,  and  the  Committee  on  Compulsory  Education  reiterated 
with  evident  satisfaction  that,  although  another  year  had  gone 
by,  there  had  still  been  "no  interference  with  parental  authority, 
no  arrests  had  been  made,  not  a  single  case  of  prosecution  or 
persecution,  the  strength  of  moral  persuasiveness  had  been 
used  in  taking  the  children  off  the  streets  and  placing  them  in 
school."  The  president  of  the  board  in  his  report  for  the  year 
1889-90,  noted  that  while  the  new  statute  had  not  accomplished 
all  that  its  ardent  friends  desired,  there  had  nevertheless  "been 
a  clear  step  foward";  he  commended  the  law  as  sound  in 
principle  and  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  discussion 
concerning  its  enforcement  had  helped  to  educate  the  public  to 
a  realization  of  the  right  of  the  state  "as  a  measure  of  public 
safety,  to  require  that  all  children  within  its  borders  shah1  be 
given  some  elementary  education." 

By  way  of  summary  it  may  be  said  that  a  great  deal  of 
interest  and  honest  effort  on  the  part  of  the  Board  of  Education 
had  gone  into  giving  the  law  a  fair  trial  in  Chicago,  and  it  may 
be  taken  as  a  measure  of  the  progress  made  in  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  that,  from  the  standpoint  of  today,  moral  suasion 
would  in  general  be  regarded  as  a  poor  substitute  for  the  more 
vigorous  methods  of  enforcement  that  have  been  adopted  since 
that  time. 

Although  poverty  was  alleged  as  an  excuse  for  a  very  small 
percentage  of  the  cases  of  non-attendance  and  truancy,  it  was 


64     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

a  peculiarly  hard  excuse  to  meet  in  those  few  cases.  The  Com- 
mittee on  Compulsory  Education  authorized  the  superintendent 
"in  all  cases  of  extreme  poverty  or  infirmities"  to  use  discretion 
in  granting  permission  to  work  and  to  attend  night  school,  but 
an  organized  effort  was  also  made  to  provide  for  the  children 
who  alleged  lack  of  shoes  or  clothes  as  a  reason  for  absence  from 
school.  An  auxiliary  committee  of  the  Chicago  Woman's  Club 
founded  the  School  Children's  Aid  Society,1  an  organization 
still  in  existence,  whose  object  is  to  provide  new  shoes  and 
clothing  for  needy  school  children;  and  the  aid  of  such  charitable 
organizations  as  existed  was  enlisted.  The  county  board  was 
asked  to  appropriate  "relief  funds  for  clothing  and  feeding  poor 
children  whose  parents  or  guardians  are  unable  to  support 
them  while  attending  school."  Rather  grandiloquently  it  was 
said  that  "while  the  county  provides  homes,  food,  clothing, 
shoes,  medicine,  and  medical  attendance  for  the  criminal,  the 
pauper,  and  the  invalid,  it  is  fair  to  presume  that  it  is  within 

1  The  School  Children's  Aid  Society  has  survived  through  all  the 
changes  of  the  last  twenty-five  years  and  is  still  an  active  organization. 
Founded  in  1888  as  an  auxiliary  committee  of  the  Chicago  Woman's  Club, 
it  is  now  maintained  largely  through  the  collection  that  is  made  for  its 
support  at  Thanksgiving  time  each  year  in  the  public  schools.  The  receipts 
from  the  children's  offerings  amounted  to  nearly  $16,000  in  1915.  In  addi- 
tion, donations  of  clothing  are  received  by  the  society.  In  spite  of  the  great 
increase  in  the  number  of  charitable  relief  societies  and  in  spite  of  the  activities 
of  the  county  agent  who  in  1913,  for  example,  furnished  15,603  pairs  of 
shoes  to  school  children,  the  society  is  still  maintained  for  the  purpose  for 
which  it  was  founded,  viz.,  to  provide  new  clothing  for  children  who  would 
otherwise  be  unable  to  attend  the  Chicago  public  schools.  Cases  needing 
assistance  are  recommended  by  principals  and  teachers,  records  are  kept 
of  aid  given,  and  although  it  is  said  that  "each  case  is  investigated,"  these 
investigations  must  be  very  inadequate,  and  the  recommendations  of  the 
different  principals  very  largely  relied  on.  The  society  has  no  salaried 
officers  and  pays  no  rent.  Its  distributing  rooms  are  in  the  centrally 
located  Haven  School  on  Wabash  Avenue  near  Sixteenth  Street.  During 
1905,  4,160  children  were  helped  and  the  total  expenditures  were  $6,043  •  3^; 
during  1915,  8,767  children  were  helped  and  $15,921 .32  expended. 


GROWTH  OF  THE  COMPULSORY  SYSTEM  65 

their  province  to  provide  clothing  and  shoes  for  indigent 
children,  so  that  they  might  attend  school,  and  in  a  measure 
save  them  from  the  pernicious  effects  of  bad  company  and  often 
very  evil  associates." 

The  net  results  of  the  first  year's  work  under  the  new  law 
showed  that  the  cases  of  nearly  17,500  children  had  been  investi- 
gated by  the  truant  officers  of  Chicago  and  that  7,380  of  these 
children  had  been  placed  in  the  public  day  schools,  983  in  evening 
schools,  and  1,436  in  private  or  parochial  schools — a  total  of 
9,799  children  placed  in  school.  That  is,  the  law,  imperfect 
as  it  was,  had  brought  nearly  10,000  children  into  the  schools  of 
Chicago.  More  than  this,  the  law  seems  to  have  been  similarly 
beneficial  all  over  Illinois.  The  public  school  enrolment  for  the 
state  as  a  whole  showed  an  increase  of  16,454  pupils  over  the 
preceding  year.  It  is  important  to  note,  however,  that  in  other 
parts  of  the  state  as  well  as  in  Chicago,  whatever  improvement 
in  school  attendance  occurred  was  not  due  to  prosecutions. 
Not  only  in  Chicago,  but  also  in  Springfield  and  in  the  other 
cities  of  the  state,  not  a  single  suit  was  brought,  and  the  state 
superintendent  charged  that,  although  penalties  had  been 
inflicted  in  a  few  cases  in  rural  districts,  the  purpose  of  the 
prosecution  had  been  "to  bring  the  law  into  disrepute  and  to 
use  it  as  an  instrument  for  arousing  prejudice." 

But  it  must  not  be  overlooked  that  the  law  had  been  com- 
pletely ignored  in  some  districts  and  that,  although  school 
attendance  had  increased,  the  purposes  of  the  law  were  far  from 
being  fulfilled.  Thus  the  state  superintendent  reported  at  the 
close  of  the  first  year  of  its  operation: 

The  law  has  been  very  imperfectly  executed.  In  many  places 
no  attempt  has  been  made  to  put  it  in  force.  The  unreasonable 
clamor  against  it  has  often  dissuaded  its  friends  from  attempting 
its  enforcement.  It  is  quite  certain  that  the  obstructions  put  into 
the  way  of  a  reasonable  execution  of  this  law  have  had  the  effect 
greatly  to  discourage  those  who  desire  to  use  it  as  a  means  of  doing  good. 


66     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Conditions  changed  very  slightly  during  the  second  school 
year  following  the  enactment  of  the  law  of  1889.  The  number 
of  attendance  officers  in  Chicago  had  been  increased  from  7  in 
1889  to  14  in  1890  and  was  further  increased  to  18  in  1891. 
The  number  of  cases  of  truant  and  of  unenrolled  children 
investigated  had  increased  from  17,463  to  20,325,  while  the 
number  returned  to  school  had  increased  from  9,799  to 
11,254.  It  was  also  reported  that,  during  the  school  year 
1890-91,  820  working  permits  had  been  issued  to  children 
of  compulsory  school  age  "whose  necessities  had  compelled 
them  to  secure  employment."  But  in  the  attempt  to  regu- 
late child  labor  an  important  step  forward  was  soon  to  be 
taken. 

Unfortunately  there  was,  in  addition  to  the  difficulties  of 
enforcement  already  alluded  to,  a  powerful  influence  working 
against  the  law  throughout  the  state — the  hostility  of  the 
parochial  schools.  The  opposition  of  the  German  Lutheran 
schools  in  particular  seems  to  have  been  aroused  by  the  pro- 
vision of  the  law  requiring  instruction  "in  English"  during  the 
period  of  compulsory  school  attendance.  Although  a  large 
number  of  the  children  brought  in  under  the  law,  1,500  in 
Chicago  alone  had  been  entered  in  parochial  schools,  and 
although  the  state  as  a  whole  showed  an  increase  of  6,729  in  the 
number  of  children  enrolled  in  these  schools,  where  there  had 
been  an  actual  decrease  in  enrolment  during  the  preceding  year, 
the  friends  of  the  parochial  schools  undoubtedly  tried  to  pre- 
vent the  enforcement  of  the  law. 

In  Chicago  the  controversy  with  the  parochial  schools 
seems  not  to  have  been  so  acute  as  in  the  rural  districts,  although 
the  report  for  the  year  1891-92,  the  second  year  of  the  operation 
of  the  "new"  compulsory  law,  shows  their  opposition  still 
active.  In  the  annual  report  of  the  Board  of  Education  for 
the  year  1892  the  following  statement  occurs  regarding  the 
parochial  school  situation: 


GROWTH  OF  THE  COMPULSORY  SYSTEM  67 

While  there  has  been  a  controversy  over  some  of  the  special 
provisions  of  the  law  relating  to  the  language  in  which  the  children 
should  be  instructed,  and  the  supervision  of  private  schools,  there 
had  been  no  controversy  that  has  been  brought  to  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation. From  the  first  action  of  enforcing  the  law,  the  attendance 
officers  were  instructed  to  notify  the  parents  or  guardians  whose 
children  did  not  attend  school,  that  they  must  go  to  school  somewhere 
for  the  time  indicated  in  the  statute,  which  was  sixteen  weeks.  At 
no  time  has  there  been  any  demand  made  that  the  children  should 
attend  the  public  schools  when  the  parents  expressed  a  wish  to  have 
them  attend  a  private  school. 

The  biennial  report  of  the  superintendent  of  schools  in 
Cook  County  for  the  period  1888-90  contained  the  following 
interesting  statement  on  this  subject: 

It  was  soon  learned  that  many  of  the  German  schools  in  the 
county  could  not  provide  for  the  proper  instruction  of  their  children 
even  in  English  reading  and  writing,  not  including  the  other  branches 
named  in  the  law.  The  importance  of  being  able  to  speak  and  write 
in  English  was  generally  acknowledged,  but  that  knowledge  of  arith- 
metic, geography,  and  history  should  be  required  in  English  was 
resisted.  In  many  of  the  German  schools  an  honest  effort  was  made 
to  teach  English.  In  some  of  them  the  teachers  were  not  qualified 
to  teach  it,  and  the  children  in  such  localities  do  not  speak  the 
English  language. 

In  the  villages  and  city  of  Chicago,  where  the  children  come  in 
contact  with  the  English-speaking  children,  there  is  no  difficulty  in 
acquiring  the  language.  In  the  rural  districts  where  the  children 
do  not  hear  the  English  language  spoken,  either  at  school  or 
in  the  home,  there  certainly  is  need  of  enforcing  instruction  in 
English. 

It  is  generally  conceded  that  the  state  has  a  right  to  demand  that 
children  shall  have  an  opportunity  to  fit  themselves  for  citizenship. 
That  children  should  acquire  the  ability  to  read  and  write  the  English 
language,  in  which  the  laws  of  the  land  are  written,  is  generally 
conceded.  That  every  person  should  be  able  to  perform  his  duty 
as  a  citizen,  to  serve  on  juries,  and  to  be  a  witness  without  an 


68     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

interpreter,  ought  not  to  be  disputed.    Ignorance  in  a  country  where 
the  people  govern  is  dangerous  to  its  institutions. 

The  state  superintendent  of  public  instruction  in  his  report 
for  1889-90  makes  a  statement  which  seems  to  have  been 
designed  to  allay  any  misgivings  or  fears  that  may  have  been 
felt  by  the  friends  of  the  parochial  schools.  Thus  he  says: 

The  compulsory  education  law  does  not  necessarily  interfere 
with  parochial  or  other  private  schools.  In  the  enactment  of  it 
there  was  no  intention  of  such  interference.  It  specially  provides 
that  attendance  at  such  schools  shall  be  accepted  in  lieu  of  attend- 
ance upon  public  schools The  authority  conferred  by  the  law 

upon  the  board  of  directors  does  not  empower  them  to  ignore  the 
facts  of  the  case,  and  of  their  own  whim  refuse  to  recognize  a  private 

school And  the  statistics  of  the  year  show,  conclusively,  that 

no  such  injury  to  private  schools  has  resulted  from  the  execution  of 
the  law.    On  the  contrary,  it  seems  to  have  helped  them. 

Unfortunately  the  parochial  school  opposition  led  to  the 
omission  of  the  requirement  of  compulsory  instruction  in 
English  from  the  later  compulsory  laws,  and  the  subsequent 
development  of  the  bilingual  schools  described  in  a  later  chap- 
ter must  be  regarded  as  an  educational  and  social  misfortune.1 

1  For  a  discussion  of  the  bilingual  schools,  see  chap,  xviii,  "The  Special 
Problem  of  the  Immigrant  Child." 


CHAPTER  V 

PARALLEL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  ILLINOIS  CHILD  LABOR 
AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  LAWS,  1893-1916 

The  compulsory  education  law  of  1889  was  strengthened 
in  July,  1891,  by  the  first  general  child  labor  law  ever  passed 
by  the  legislature  of  Illinois.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  new 
child  labor  law  was  quite  as  crude  and  unsatisfactory  as  the 
compulsory  education  laws  that  were  already  on  the  statute 
books.  It  was  made  unlawful  for  any  person,  firm,  or  corpora- 
tion to  employ  or  hire  any  child  under  thirteen  years  of  age 
without  a  certificate,  but  the  board  of  education  was  given 
authority  to  excuse  any  such  child  from  school  and  to  authorize 
his  employment,  provided  his  labor  was  needed  for  the  support 
of  any  aged  or  infirm  relative  and  provided  the  child  had 
attended  school  at  least  eight  weeks  in  the  current  year.  The 
system  of  allowing  children  to  work  if  their  relatives  seemed  to 
be  in  need  meant,  of  course,  that  the  children  most  in  need  of 
the  protection  of  child  labor  and  compulsory  education  laws 
would  be  entirely  excluded  from  their  benefits.  The  law  was 
also  weak  in  that  it  contained  no  provision  for  enforcement. 
While  the  child  under  thirteen  could  not  be  employed  unless 
he  had  a  certificate  from  the  board  of  education,  no  machinery 
was  provided  for  issuing  such  certificates,  nor  was  any  proof  of 
age  required  to  show  that  children  who  were  employed  were 
over  the  compulsory  attendance  age. 

In  Chicago  the  way  had  been  prepared  for  a  child  labor  law 
by  the  City  Council,  which  had  passed  an  ordinance  prohibiting 
the  employment  of  children  under  fourteen  unless  they  had 
special  work-permits  issued  by  the  superintendent  of  compul- 
sory education.  During  the  year  a  special  attendance  officer 

69 


70     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

was  detailed  by  the  Board  of  Education  to  visit  factories  and  to 
notify  employers  of  the  provision  of  the  law,  but  the  work  of 
this  single  inspector  was  necessarily  ineffective,  and  the  super- 
intendent of  schools  reported  that  those  who  had  investigated 
the  subject  believed  that  many  children  under  fourteen  years 
of  age  were  working  in  factories  in  different  parts  of  the  city. 
Moreover,  under  the  authority  of  the  Board  of  Education  many 
children  had  been  "excused"  from  school  because  of  their 
poverty.  During  the  year,  1,077  children  between  the  ages  of 
ten  and  thirteen  years  were  officially  "excused"  from  school 
and  given  work-permits  for  the  following  reasons:  288  because 
of  "poverty,"  261  because  of  "intemperance"  (presumably 
the  intemperance  of  their  fathers  who  were  thus  rendered  in 
need  of  their  children's  earnings),  508  because  they  were  orphans 
or  deserted  by  their  parents,  and  20  for  miscellaneous  reasons. 
All  that  Chicago  could  do  for  her  dependent  children  was  to 
give  them  work-permits  and  excuses  from  school,  allowing 
them  to  work  in  factories  and  support  themselves  and  their 
intemperate  parents. 

Recommendations  looking  toward  certain  definite  improve- 
ments in  the  compulsory  education  law  were  made  by  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education  in  1892  at  the  close 
of  the  school  year.  Two  important  changes  were  suggested: 
first,  that  the  law  should  require  compulsory  school  attendance 
of  all  children  under  thirteen  years  of  age,  during  the  entire 
time  that  the  schools  were  in  session;  and,  second,  that  pro- 
vision should  be  made  for  the  enforcement  of  a  penalty  against 
parents  or  guardians  who  wilfully  deprived  their  children  of  the 
benefits  of  an  education.  The  committee  pointed  out  that,  as 
a  result  of  the  fact  that  no  penalty  had  ever  been  imposed  for 
the  wilful  violation  of  the  compulsory  law,  many  people  had 
come  to  disregard  the  official  notices  which  were  sent  to  them, 
and  positively  refused  to  comply  with  the  requirements  of  the 
law.  Many  instances,  it  was  said,  had  been  reported  where 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  EDUCATION  LAWS  71 

parents  and  guardians  had  "wilfully  compelled  young  children 
to  labor  that  they  might  profit  by  their  small  earnings.  Had 
the  law  been  enforced  in  a  few  of  the  extreme  cases  of  such 
violations,  as  reported  by  the  attendance  officers,  the  effect 
would  have  been  wholesome  on  a  large  number  who  would 
have  immediately  complied  with  the  reasonable  provisions  of 
the  statutes." 

The  report  of  the  committee  also  called  attention  to  the 
lack  of  provision  "for  the  care,  maintenance,  and  education  of 
neglected  and  wayward  children."  The  schools  were  unable 
to  meet  the  needs  of  these  children  who  were  frequently  brought 
into  the  schoolrooms  off  the  streets,  who  were  unaccustomed 
to  a  disciplinary  routine,  and  who  were  a  source  of  demoral- 
ization to  the  other  children.  Separate  schools  were  recom- 
mended for  these  children,  where  special  provision  could  be 
made  not  only  for  their  schooling  but  "for  their  bodily  care 
and  proper  preparation  for  contact  with  others  in  a  school- 
room." The  wastefulness  of  the  failure  to  provide  for  these 
children  was  emphasized.  According  to  the  report, 

the  statistics  of  the  Police  Court,  the  County  Jail  and  Bridewell, 
show  a  large  number  of  children  who  annually  become  violators  of 
the  law,  and  are  placed  under  arrest.  They  are  then  supported  at 
public  expense  in  a  building  built  by  public  taxes,  and  cared  for  and 
watched  by  paid  officers.  These  children  have  become  criminals, 
and  a  charge  upon  the  city  or  county  by  somebody's  neglect.  The 
Board  of  Education  has  not  been  authorized  to  care  for  this  class  of 
children.  Nobody  cared  for  them  until  they  became  violators  of  the 
law,  and  enemies  to  good  society.  Provision  should  be  made  at  once 
for  the  detention  and  support  of  neglected  children,  and  they  should 
receive  a  training  and  instruction  that  will  lead  them  to  habits  of 
cleanliness,  order,  submission  to  authority,  and  a  useful  life. 

But  at  this  time  a  new  and  dramatic  influence  was  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  compulsory  education  situation — the  influence 
of  Hull-House,  Chicago's  first  "social  settlement,"  which  had 


72     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

been  established  a  few  years  earlier  by  Miss  Jane  Addams  in 
the  heart  of  the  great  industrial  neighborhood  of  Chicago's 
"West  Side."  Among  the  little  group  of  social  reformers  who 
joined  Miss  Addams  in  the  early  days  of  the  settlement  was 
Mrs.  Florence  Kelley,  who  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  was 
to  be  the  embodiment  of  the  public  conscience  on  the  subject 
of  child  labor  and  its  attendant  evils.  The  residents  of  the 
new  settlement,  living  where  they  saw  day  by  day  how  inade- 
quate, and  ineffective  the  child  labor  and  compulsory  education 
laws  really  were,  set  about  securing  the  necessary  improvements 
in  these  laws.  Mrs.  Kelley,  as  a  first  step,  suggested  to  the 
Illinois  State  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  that  an  investigation 
of  the  sweating  system  should  be  made  in  Chicago,  for  she 
believed  that  large  numbers  of  children  who  should  have  been 
in  school  were  at  work-  in  sweatshops  all  over  the  West  Side. 
Not  only  was  the  suggestion  adopted,  probably  because  of  the 
social  sympathies  of  the  radical  Governor  Altgeld,  but  Mrs. 
Kelley  was  commissioned  as  a  special  investigator  to  make  this 
inquiry;  and  as  a  result  of  the  presentation  of  her  report  to  the 
next  legislature,  a  special  legislative  committee  was  appointed 
to  report  on  Chicago  institutions.1  The  report  of  this  special 
committee,  supported  by  the  untiring  efforts  of  the  labor  unions 
and  by  the  propaganda  carried  on  by  Miss  Addams  and  Mrs. 
Kelley,  secured  the  passage  in  the  next  legislature  of  a  new 
"act  concerning  the  education  of  children"  and  a  new  child 
labor  law,2  both  of  which  went  into  effect  on  the  first  of  July, 
1893. 

Unfortunately,  the  new  compulsory  education  law  was  still 
far  from  being  the  effective  measure  that  was  needed.     It 

1  See  Twenty  Years  at  Hull-House,  pp.  198-208,  for  an  account  of  early 
child  labor  conditions  as  seen  by  Miss  Addams  and  her  fellow-residents  at 
Hull-House. 

2  This  was  called  "An  act  to  regulate  the  manufacture  of  clothing, 
wearing  apparel  and  other  articles." — Session  Laws,  1893,  pp.  100-101. 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  EDUCATION  LAWS  73 

marked  no  real  advance  over  the  old  law  and  in  some  respects 
was  even  less  satisfactory.  It  contained  the  same  provision 
as  the  law  of  1889  requiring  sixteen  weeks'  school  attendance 
during  the  year,  and  it  extended  the  required  period  of  consecu- 
tive attendance  from  eight  to  twelve  weeks.  But  the  old  pro- 
vision that  the  compulsory  regulations  could  be  met  only  by 
attendance  at  schools  offering  instruction  "in  English"  was 
dropped  to  please  the  friends  of  the  parochial  schools,  and  the 
appointment  of  truant  officers,  which  in  the  earlier  law  had 
been  mandatory  on  boards  of  education,  was  in  the  new  law 
made  permissive1 — two  distinctly  retrograde  steps. 

The  new  child  labor  law,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  brilliant 
piece  of  social  legislation  for  that  time.  Mrs.  Kelley's  impetu- 
ous fire  and  her  vivid  and  relentless  pictures  of  child  labor 
conditions  had  been  irresistible.  The  new  law  provided  that 
children  under  fourteen  could  no  longer  work  in  "factories, 
manufacturing  establishments,  and  workshops";  that  children 
under  sixteen  must  furnish  affidavits  giving  their  age;  and  that 
every  employer  must  keep  a  register  and  post  a  wall  list  con- 
taining the  names,  ages,  and  addresses  of  all  children  under  that 
age  employed  in  his  establishment.  Most  important  of  all,  the 
law  carried  provisions  for  its  enforcement  by  providing  for  a 
department  of  factory  inspection  with  a  chief  factory  inspector 
and  twelve  deputies,  and  Governor  Altgeld  distinguished  him- 
self by  appointing  Mrs.  Kelley  as  the  first  chief  factory  inspector 
of  Illinois.  The  law  also  contained  an  advanced  provision, 
which  unfortunately  proved  to  be  ineffective,  giving  the  factory 
inspectors  the  right  to  demand  a  doctor's  certificate  of  physical 
fitness  from  any  working  child  under  sixteen  and  to  prohibit 
the  child's  employment  if  a  certificate  could  not  be  obtained. 

1  In  the  law  of  1889  it  was  provided  that  "it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the 
Board  of  Education  to  appoint  .  .  .  ."  while  the  new  law  of  1893  merely 
provided  that  "the  Board  of  Education  may  at  their  discretion  appoint 
one  or  more  persons." 


74     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

The  law  was  still  weak  in  many  respects,  and  Mrs.  Kelley 
never  allowed  the  public  to  forget  that,  however  much  had  been 
done,  there  was  still  a  great  deal  that  had  been  left  undone. 
The  children  of  Illinois  were  not  yet  as  well  protected  as  the 
children  of  Massachusetts  or  .New  York.  The  new  Illinois  law, 
for  example,  applied  only  to  manufacturing  establishments, 
and  it  was  not  until  1897  that  its  provisions  were  extended  to 
"offices,  stores,  and  mercantile  establishments."  Nothing  was 
done  and  up  to  the  present  time  nothing  has  yet  been  done  by 
the  state  for  the  street-trading  children,  who  are  still  waiting 
for  protection.  Mrs.  Kelley,  in  the  chief  factory  inspector's 
report  for  1894,  spoke  of  the  neglected  condition  of  these  chil- 
dren; there  were,  she  said,  among  them  thousands  of  children 
between  seven  and  fourteen  who  were  still  not  attending  school, 

a  horde  of  little  peddlers  of  fruit,  vegetables,  and  other  wares.  These 
children  learn  no  trade  and  form  only  habits  of  roaming  the  street, 
irresponsible  and  lawless.  When  children  are  expelled  from  school 
at  eleven  years  of  age,  and  prohibited  from  working  in  factories  until 
fourteen,  they  are  apt  to  fall  into  this  class.  They  could  be  reached 
by  requiring  every  peddler  or  vendor  under  sixteen  years  of  age  to 
obtain  a  license  from  the  State  Factory  Inspector,  and  prohibiting 
all  such  work  for  children  under  the  age  of  fourteen  years,  and  for 
illiterate  children  under  sixteen  years. 

The  experience  of  a  few  months  with  these  two  laws  clearly 
demonstrated  one  fact — that  a  well-enforced  compulsory  edu- 
cation law  must  precede  or  accompany  a  child  labor  law  if 
child  labor  is  really  to  be  prohibited  or  even  regulated.  A  good 
compulsory  education  law,  well  enforced,  may  in  fact  prevent 
child  labor,  whereas  a  child  labor  law  unaccompanied  by  a  com- 
pulsory education  law  takes  children  out  of  the  factories  and 
workshops  only  to  throw  them  into  the  street. 

The  very  interesting  sections  dealing  with  the  subject  of 
child  labor  in  Mrs.  Kelley's  first  annual  report  are  reprinted 
in  an  appendix  to  this  volume,  and  attention  may  be  called,  in 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  EDUCATION  LAWS  75 

passing,  to  the  fact  that  these  first  four  reports  of  the  state 
factory  inspectors  of  Illinois,  prepared  while  Mrs.  Kelley  was 
in  charge  of  the  office,  are  like  no  other  official  reports  that  have 
ever  been  issued  in  the  state,  so  moving  and  human  are  they, 
so  full  of  indignant  satire,  so  honest  in  their  relentless  descrip- 
tion of  conditions  as  they  really  existed,  with  no  attempt  to 
cover  up  or  conceal  the  evils  with  which  the  state  must  deal. 
The  first  of  these  remarkable  "annual  reports"  shows  that 
one  of  the  most  lamentable  results  of  the  inadequacy  of  the 
compulsory  education  laws  was  a  shocking  state  of  illiteracy 
among  the  children.  Children  unable  to  spell  their  names, 
or  the  names  of  the  streets  on  which  they  lived,  were  found 
at  work  every  day  by  the  indefatigable  inspectors  of  this 
new  state  department.  In  her  report  the  chief  inspector 
declared: 

Where  these  children  are  under  fourteen  years  of  age,  they  are 
turned  over  to  the  compulsory  attendance  officer  of  the  Board  of 
Education,  but  for  those  over  the  age  of  fourteen  the  state  prescribes 
no  educational  requirement,  and  unless  they  look  deformed,  under- 
sized, or  diseased,  the  inspectors  have  no  ground  upon  which  to 
withdraw  them  from  their  life  of  premature  toil.  And  in  no  case 
can  we  insist  upon  rudimentary  education  for  them. 

In  this  respect  the  Illinois  law  is  far  from  abreast  with  the  laws 
of  Massachusetts  and  New  York.  In  Massachusetts  every  child 
must  attend  some  school  throughout  the  period  during  which  the 
public  schools  are  in  session  until  fourteen  years  of  age.  And  in 
towns  and  cities  in  which  there  is  manual  training  in  the  schools, 
the  children  must  attend  school  until  the  completion  of  the  fifteenth 
year.  New  York  goes  even  further,  and  empowers  her  inspectors 
to  order  peremptorily  the  discharge  of  any  child  under  sixteen  years 
of  age  who  cannot  read  and  write  simple  sentences  in  the  English 
language.  Such  a  clause  as  this  last  one  would  cause  the  transfer 
of  many  hundreds  of  Illinois  children  from  the  factory  to  the  school- 
room.1 

1  First  Annual  Report  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  of  Illinois  (1893),  p.  14. 


76     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Another  difficulty  encountered  by  the  chief  factory  inspector 
was  the  fact  that  many  of  the  children  who  were  in  the  greatest 
need  of  schooling  were  expelled  or  suspended  for  bad  conduct 
soon  after  they  were  placed  in  school.  Before  1893  the  school 
authorities  had  already  called  attention  to  the  neglected  state 
of  these  children,  but  professed  themselves  helpless  until  a 
parental  school  law  should  make  it  possible  to  care  for  them 
outside  of  the  regular  schoolrooms. 

Instead  of  suspending  refractory  and  vicious  children  from  our 
schools  [said  the  annual  report  of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education] 
provision  should  be  made  so  that  a  child  who  is  not  manageable  with 
better  children,  shall  first  be  placed  under  the  care  of  special  teachers 
in  a  disciplinary  school,  and  when  they  become  unmanageable  by 
parents  and  teachers,  they  should  be  confined  in  a  parental  home  or 
school,  thus  providing  a  means  of  properly  educating  and  training 
every  child.1 

The  school  census  of  1894  showed  6,887  children  between 
the  ages  of  seven  and  fourteen  out  of  school,  a  fact  to  which 
Mrs.  Kelley  repeatedly  called  public  attention.  The  work  of 

1  Thirty-ninth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago 
(1893),  pp.  65-67:  "Suspension  is  the  extreme  penalty  which  can  be 
imposed  upon  a  wilfully  disobedient  pupil.  Before  this  can  be  done,  every 
possible  moral  influence  is  exerted  to  secure  obedience,  appeals  are  made  to 
parents  to  co-operate  with  the  teachers,  finally  temporary  suspension  from 
school  for  some  repeated  offense  or  rebellious  act  results  in  permanent  with- 
drawal from  school.  In  many  instances  these  children  are  made  to  work 
when  they  leave  school,  and  through  the  discipline  of  continuous  hard  work 
finally  become  law-abiding  citizens.  But  many  who  drop  out  of  school 
become  a  menace  to  good  government,  vagrants,  lawbreakers,  ultimately 

criminals  and  inmates  of  the  jail,  bridewell,  reform  school  and  prison 

No  provision  is  made  for  then*  restraint,  until  they  violate  some  law  under 
which  they  can  be  arrested  as  criminals,  and  then  they  are  committed  to 

the  jail,  bridewell  or  prison Other  cities  have  also  discussed  the 

problem  and  the  school  board  of  Boston  has  secured  the  enactment  of  a  law 
under  which  they  are  building  a  parental  school.  The  time  has  come  when 
Chicago  must  act  in  this  matter." 


77 

her  own  department  was,  she  reiterated,  entirely  nullified,  so  far 
as  the  protection  of  the  children  was  concerned,  by  the  inability 
of  the  school  authorities  to  place  in  school  the  children  removed 
by  her  inspectors  from  factories  and  workshops.  The  intimation 
is  plain  in  Mrs.  Kelley's  reports  that  the  Chicago  Board  of 
Education  was  not  doing  its  duty,  and  she  repeatedly  urged 
that  the  prosecution  of  parents  who  disobeyed  the  law  should 
be  made  mandatory  upon  boards  of  education  which  then 
boasted  of  the  fact  that  they  relied  wholly  on  "moral  suasion."1 
In  her  second  annual  report  Mrs.  Kelley  says: 

Although  the  law  prohibits  absolutely  the  employment  of  any 
child  under  fourteen  years  of  age  in  manufacture,  yet  the  children 
under  fourteen  years  can  never  be  wholly  kept  out  of  the  factories 
and  workshops  until  they  are  kept  in  school.  At  present  the  school 
attendance  law  is  almost  useless,  at  least  in  Chicago,  where  the  largest 
number  of  children  have  been  found  at  work.  Although  the  Chicago 
Board  of  Education  employs  attendance  agents,  yet  children  leave 
school  to  sell  papers;  to  carry  cash  in  stores,  and  telegrams  and  mes- 
sages in  streets;  to  peddle,  black  boots,  "tend  the  baby,"  or  merely 
to  idle  about.  Unruly  children  are  expelled  from  school  to  suit  the 
convenience  of  teachers.  Principals  of  schools  have  sent  to  the 
inspectors  children  eleven  years  old,  with  the  written  request  that 
permits  be  granted  to  enable  the  children  to  go  to  work  (in  violation 
of  the  factory  law)  because  in  each  case  the  child  is  "incorrigible." 
As  no  factory  can  be  a  better  place  for  a  child  eleven  years  old  than 

1  See  for  example  the  Thirty-ninth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation of  Chicago  (1893),  p.  65:  "The  enactment  of  a  new  law  by  the 
legislature  to  protect  children  in  their  educational  rights  did  not  make  it 
necessary  to  change  the  organization  of  the  department  of  compulsory  edu- 
cation. No  enforcement  of  the  penalties  for  violation  of  the  statute  has 
ever  been  attempted  in  Chicago.  The  school  officers  notify  the  parents  or 
guardians  of  children  who  are  under  fourteen  years  of  age  and  who  do  not 
attend  any  school,  that  the  law  requires  each  child  to  attend  some  school, 
at  least  sixteen  weeks  in  the  year,  and  urge  compliance  with  the  law.  Prob- 
ably three  thousand  children  were  either  brought  into  the  schools  for  the 
first  time  during  the  year  or  were  returned  after  absence." 


78     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

a  reasonably  good  school,  this  request  voices  the  desire  of  the  principal 
to  be  relieved  of  the  trouble  of  the  child. 

Of  the  thousands  of  children  out  of  work,  it  was  charged 
that  "hundreds  are  seeking  work  in  shops  and  factories,  and 
when  they  find  work  and  the  laws  of  the  state  are  thereby 
violated,  the  task  of  prosecution,  which  should  fall  in  part  at 
least  on  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago,  devolves  upon  the 
State  Factory  Inspectors  alone."  The  charge  was  also  made 
that  out  of  103  children  reported  to  the  Department  of  Compul- 
sory Education  by  the  factory  inspectors  during  the  three 
months  of  the  fall  term  of  1893,  only  31  were  ever  placed  in 
school.  Some  of  the  remaining  children  were  not  found, 
others  were  given  permits  to  work  in  stores,  others  were  dropped 
as  "incorrigible,"  and  finally,  "in  fifteen  cases  the  mere  state- 
ment of  the  parent  that  the  child  was  over  fourteen  was  received 
by  the  compulsory  department  as  sufficient  reason  for  dropping 
the  case,  although  in  each  such  case  the  parent  declined,  in 
dealing  with  us,  to  make  affidavit  to  show  the  child  to  be  more 
than  fourteen  years  old."  In  the  report  for  1894,  Mrs.  Kelley 
charged  that  the  child  labor  law  was  being  nullified  by  the 
indifference  of  the  educational  authorities.  She  wrote  vigor- 
ously as  follows: 

The  humane  intent  of  the  first  clause  of  Section  4  of  the  workshop 
and  factory  law  is  obvious:  that  the  child  under  fourteen  years  is  to 
be  safeguarded  by  the  state  against  employment  injurious  to  it. 
This  intent  is  nullified  if  the  child  is  not  kept  in  school,  but  drifts 
from  one  workshop  into  another,  or  from  the  factories  into  the 
streets.  We  therefore  recommend  that  the  legislature  make  the 
prosecution  of  derelict  parents  not  as  it  now  is,  merely  discretionary 
with  the  local  school  boards,  but  mandatory  upon  them;  as  the 
prosecution  of  manufacturers  is  made  mandatory  upon  the  factory 
inspectors  by  Section  9  of  the  factory  law. 

Mrs.  Kelley  also  pointed  out  that  although  the  state  factory 
inspectors  had  obtained  the  conviction  of  twenty-five  employers 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  EDUCATION  LAWS  79 

upon  thirty-three  charges  of  having  in  their  factories  or  work- 
shops children  under  fourteen  years  of  age,  not  once  had  any  of 
these  parents  been  prosecuted  under  theschool  lawsforpermitting 
their  children's  unlawful  employment  and  absence  from  school. 
As  a  result  of  Mrs.  Kelley's  persistent  and  disquieting 
charges,  the  standing  Committee  of  the  Board  of  Education 
on  Compulsory  Education  again  took  up  the  much-vexed 
question  as  to  the  value  of  the  Department  of  Compulsory 
Education.  This  .committee  recommended,  as  other  com- 
mittees had  done,  the  establishment  of  a  parental  school  for 
non-attending  and  incorrigible  children1  and  such  changes  in  the 
law  as  were  necessary  to  make  mandatory  the  prosecution  of 
indifferent  parents  who  were  neglecting  their  children.  The 
final  and  astonishing  recommendation  was  that  the  Depart- 
ment of  Compulsory  Education  should  be  either  curtailed  or 
abolished,  since  its  efforts  on  behalf  of  the  children  most  needing 
service  were  ineffectual.  The  committee  not  only  recom- 

1  The  report  of  the  committee  contains  the  following  statement:  "These 
are  largely  the  children  of  widows,  and  no  law  reaches  them,  for  it  would  be 
obviously  unjust  to  fine  the  mother  for  the  non-attendance  of  the  child 
when  what  she  most  desires  is  to  secure  such  attendance. 

"Many  parents  have  come  to  the  Chairman  of  this  Committee  reciting 
those  conditions  and  asking  counsel  as  to  what  to  do  to  prevent  their 
children  from  drifting  into  a  criminal  life,  as  the  mothers  recognized  would 
be  the  result  if  they  were  left  to  grow  up  under  these  street  influences. 
Some  provision  should  be  made  for  such  children  by  establishing  and  main- 
taining a  parental  school  to  which  they  could  be  sent  on  application  of 
parents  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time  as  circumstances  required.  Such 
schools  are  to  be  found  in  England  and  in  some  of  our  older  states,  and  they 
pay  for  themselves  a  thousand  times  over  in  the  prevention  of  criminality 
and  pauperism. 

"The  second  class,  which  the  law  fails  to  affect,  are  the  children  of 
dissipated  and  careless  parents,  through  whose  neglect  the  child  is  per- 
mitted to  grow  up  in  ignorance  and  crime.  The  fine  and  imprisonment 
should  be  enforced  against  such,  but  the  imperfections  of  the  present  law 
are  such  that,  with  the  best  efforts  of  the  committees  and  the  attorney  of 
the  board,  no  case  has  ever  been  made  out  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  law." 
— Fortieth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago  (1894),  pp. 
155-59- 


8o     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

mended  the  abolition  of  the  department,  but  suggested  that  the 
funds  used  for  the  salaries  of  the  attendance  officers  be  diverted 
to  support  a  kindergarten  system.  The  whole  report  was  an 
open  confession  of  failure  on  the  part  of  the  board  in  face  of  the 
chief  factory  inspector's  running  fire  of  criticism.  The  Depart- 
ment of  Compulsory  Education  had  failed,  according  to  the 
committee,  "in  getting  into  school  the  large  class  of  non- 
attendants."  It  was  pointed  out  that  the  average  attendance 
of  children  returned  to  school  through  the  agents  was  only 
thirty-five  days  (six  weeks  of  the  school  year),  and  that  the 
non-attendant  children,  for  whom  the  law  was  chiefly  designed, 
usually  remained  in  school  but  a  few  days  at  a  time. 

They  are  brought  in  [said  the  report],  stay  a  day  or  two,  disappear; 
are  again  hunted  up,  come  for  a  day  or  two,  and  stop,  and  so  on. 
Under  these  conditions  your  Committee  feel  justified  in  asking  if  the 
money  spent  on  the  Compulsory  Department  could  not  be  better 
expended  and  do  more  good  if  used  to  extend  the  kindergarten 
system1 Your  committee  therefore  beg  leave  to  suggest  that 

1  The  following  extract  further  explains  this  somewhat  vague  kinder- 
garten plan  proposed  by  a  committee  of  which  two  well-known  club  women 
were  members:  "If  the  child  could  be  put  in  the  kindergarten  during  the 
years  that,  too  young  for  the  school,  he  is,  by  the  poverty  or  neglect  of 
parents,  left  to  the  demoralizing  influences  of  the  streets,  he  would  never 
acquire  the  tastes  and  habits  that  lead  him  to  truancy  in  later  life.  Your 
chairman  believes  that  prevention  is  better  than  cure,  that  coaxing  is  better 
than  coercion,  that  the  mental  and  moral  influences  of  the  kindergarten 
cannot  be  overestimated  in  shaping  the  child's  nature  during  the  years  when 
well-to-do  parents  are  giving  their  best  thought  and  time  to  their  children 
but  when  the  parents  of  the  poor  child  are  compelled  to  neglect  his  mental 
and  moral  nature  in  order  to  provide  bare  sustenance  for  his  physical. 

"  Careful  research  into  the  history  of  pauperism  and  criminality  seems 
to  show  that  the  child's  bent  is  fixed  before  his  seventh  year.  If  the  influ- 
ences surrounding  him  before  that  time  are  for  good,  if  he  has  proper  moral 
training,  if  his  life  and  habits  are  carefully  guarded,  the  majority  of  healthy 
children  will  go  on  with  a  vigorous  and  healthy  moral  and  physical  develop- 
ment. If  childhood  is  neglected,  if  difference  between  right  and  wrong,  if 
in  fact  the  evil  instead  of  the  good  is  developed  up  to  that  time,  in  the 
majority  of  cases  no  after  effort  will  atone,  and  the  child  will  mature  lawless 
and  uncontrolled,  and  the  final  end  will  be  the  jail  or  the  poorhouse." 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  EDUCATION  LAWS  81 

in  another  year  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education  be  cur- 
tailed and  abolished,  and  that,  in  its  place,  the  kindergarten  be 
maintained,  believing  the  latter  will  do  far  more  for  the  prevention 
of  truancy  than  the  former  can  do  under  the  most  favorable  circum- 
stances to  overcome  the  habit  once  formed. 

The  astonishing  recommendation  of  this  committee  that 
funds  set  aside  for  the  support  of  the  compulsory  attendance 
officers  be  used  to  instal  a  kindergarten  system  was  not  adopted, 
and  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education  was  retained, 
although  it  continued  to  be  thoroughly  ineffectual.  In  1896, 
after  three  years'  experience  as  chief  factory  inspector,  Mrs. 
Kelley  announced  in  the  annual  report  of  the  chief  factory 
inspector  that  the  compulsory  school  law  remained  "a  dead 
letter,"  that  no  prosecution  had  ever  been  undertaken  for  its 
enforcement  by  any  board  of  education,  and  that  the  weakness 
of  its  provisions  continued  to  serve  as  an  excuse  for  continued 
failure  to  prosecute  parents  for  violating  it.  Children  were 
as  illiterate  as  before  the  passage  of  the  laws  of  1893,  Mrs. 
Kelley  affirmed,  and  she  also  charged  that  many  of  those 
nominally  in  school  were  attending  non-English  parochial 
schools.  "The  educational  status  of  the  children  found  at 
work  shows  no  improvement,"  her  official  report  states  with 
no  uncertain  emphasis.  "From  garment  and  cigar-shops, 
children  are  still  taken  into  court  as  witnesses  in  factory  cases 
who  speak  no  English,  some  of  them  having  lived  several  years 
in  the  state  in  dense  foreign  colonies;  and  going  to  school,  if  at 
all,  where  English  is  not  taught."  Mrs.  Kelley  also  attacked 
the  City  Council  for  reducing  the  school  appropriation  and  the 
Board  of  Education  for  its  failure  to  make  adequate  school  pro- 
vision for  its  children: 

Until  there  are  schools  for  the  children,  and  a  compulsory  edu- 
cation law  that  is  enforced,  the  factory  inspectors  cannot  keep  all 
the  children  under  fourteen  years  out  of  factories  and  workshops. 


82     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

While  an  effective  factory  law  is  the  best  possible  supplement  to  a 
good  compulsory  education  law,  neither  can  take  the  place  of  the 
other;  and  the  attempt  to  enable  the  factory  inspectors  to  do  the 
work  of  truant  officers  can  never  be  successful In  manu- 
facturing centers  there  is  the  same  lack  of  school  accommodations 
to  which  attention  has  been  called  in  previous  reports,  as  one  great 
reason  for  the  illiteracy  prevailing  among  working  children  in  this 
state.  In  Chicago,  the  City  Council  has  taken  a  distinctly  retro- 
grade step  in  reducing  the  school  appropriations  by  $2,000,000  for 
1896-97,  thus  checking  the  building  of  school  houses,  and  depriving 
thousands  of  working-class  children  of  the  opportunity  for  school  life 
which  primary  schools  are  supposed  to  extend  to  all  alike.  That 
the  working  children  are  thus  vitally  affected,  the  report  of  the 
Chicago  Board  of  Education  for  1896  shows. 

Unfortunately  the  school  board  had  brought  this  rebuke 
down  upon  itself  by  complaining  the  year  before  that  it  found 
enough  to  do  in  making  provision  for  the  children  who  were  will- 
ing to  come  to  school  without  compulsion,  and  the  implication 
was  that  the  board  felt  that  it  might  be  excused  from  worrying 
about  the  children  who  did  not  wish  to  attend  its  schools. 
The  following  statement  in  the  annual  report  of  the  board  for 
the  year  1894-95  regarding  the  compulsory  education  situation 
called  forth  much  criticism: 

The  fifteen  truant  agents,  appointed  by  the  Board  of  Education 
to  visit  different  sections  of  the  city  and  to  notify  the  parents  of 
children  who  do  not  attend  school,  that  the  law  requires  them  to  do 
so,  have  done  the  best  they  could  under  the  existing  conditions.  The 
law  is  ineffective,  because  no  penalty  can  be  enforced.  Some  good 
is  accomplished  by  serving  notices  upon  parents  that  the  children 
should  attend  school,  but  wherever  parents  are  indifferent  or  deliber- 
ately keep  their  children  from  school,  no  effort  has  been  made  to 
enforce  the  law.  Under  the  city  statutes  relating  to  vagrants, 
children  who  are  found  upon  the  streets  could  be  arrested,  and  the 
parents  could  be  reached  by  the  police.  Chicago  fails  to  give  this 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  EDUCATION  LAWS  83 

class  of  children  the  education  and  training  which  would  redeem 
many,  and  bring  them  to  better  citizenship.  The  Board  of  Edu- 
cation very  naturally  finds  much  to  do  in  caring  for  the  two  hundred 
thousand  children  who  are  enrolled  and  glad  to  come  to  school 
without  compulsion. 

It  has  been  said  that  Mrs.  Kelley  never  allowed  the  state  to 
believe  that  anything  more  than  "an  initial  measure"  on  behalf 
of  its  neglected  children  had  been  secured.  As  early  as  1894  she 
had  pointed  out  in  one  of  her  reports  that,  compared  with  the 
codes  of  protective  legislation  of  the  states  of  Massachusetts, 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Michigan,  and 
Rhode  Island,  the  Illinois  law  was 

merely  an  initial  measure  intended  to  mitigate  certain  conspicuous 
evils.  While  prohibiting  the  employment  of  children  under  fourteen 
years  of  age,  it  does  not,  like  the  New  York  law,  place  a  premium  on 
the  school  attendance  of  such  children  by  prohibiting  their  employ- 
ment to  the  age  of  sixteen  in  case  they  fail  to  read  and  write  simple 
English.  While  empowering  the  inspectors  to  demand  health  certifi- 
cates for  certain  children,  it  provides  no  physicians  to  furnish  the 
certificates,  but  leaves  them  to  be  furnished  to  all  comers  by  any 
physician.  While  permitting  thousands  of  children  to  go  to  work  at 
fourteen  years  of  age,  it  affords  them  no  safeguards  against  falling 
down  elevator  shafts,  burning  up  for  want  of  fire  escapes,  being 
mangled  in  unguarded  belting  and  shafting,  or  mutilated  by  uncovered 
saws  and  unprotected  stamps.  It  provides  for  no  notice  to  the 
inspectors  of  accidents  occurring  hi  factories,  and  empowers  no  one 
to  require  modern  ventilation  and  sanitation  where  employes  are 
poisoned  by  foul  drams,  bad  air  or  hurtful  fumes  engendered  in  their 
work. 

Viewed  as  an  initial  measure  [Mrs.  Kelley  conceded,  and  it  was 
her  only  concession],  the  Illinois  law  must  be  regarded  as  a  promising 
beginning;  but  compared  with  the  codes  of  the  other  states  it  must 
be  admitted  that  it  does  not  effectively  guard  the  employes  in  factories 
in  their  life,  limbs,  health  or  intelligence;  and  is  far  from  insuring 
the  people  of  the  state  against  an  increasing  burden  of  orphan  children 


84     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

and  of  cripples,  consumptives  and  other  invalids,  deprived  of  the 
power  of  self-support  by  preventable  evils  in  the  places  in  which  they 
work. 

The  conditions  so  vividly  described  by  Mrs.  Kelley  caused 
so  much  dissatisfaction  that,  in  1897,  a  new  child  labor  law 
was  enacted  which  was  strengthened  by  a  new  compulsory 
education  law.  The  old  child  labor  law,  which  had  applied 
only  to  factories,  was  now  extended  to  "  offices,  stores,  and 
mercantile  establishments,"  and  some  ineffective  but  well- 
meant  protective  measures  for  children  between  the  ages  of 
fourteen  and  sixteen  were  added.  The  hours  of  work  for  such 
children  were  limited  to  ten  in  one  day  and  sixty  in  one  week, 
and  they  were  prohibited  from  working  at  extra-hazardous 
occupations.  The  most  important  improvement  relating  to 
the  better  enforcement  of  the  law  was  a  provision  that  put  the 
burden  of  proof  on  the  employer  in  case  of  violation.  The 
presence  of  a  child  under  sixteen  in  any  work-place  was  declared 
to  be  prima  facie  evidence  of  his  employment. 

Along  with  these  substantial  improvements  in  the  child 
labor  law  went  some  unsubstantial  additions  to  the  compulsory 
education  law.  The  new  law,  called  "An  act  to  promote  attend- 
ance in  schools  and  to  prevent  truancy"  was  still  very  weak. 
The  period  of  compulsory  attendance,  a  meager  sixteen  weeks 
of  the  school  term,  remained  unchanged,  but  there  was  a  slight 
improvement  which  made  the  period  of  consecutive  attendance 
begin  at  a  definite  time,  that  is,  with  the  opening  of  the  school 
term  for  children  under  ten  years  of  age,  and  on  December  i 
for  those  over  ten.  This  provision,  of  course,  made  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  school  attendance  period  more  practicable.  The 
appointment  of  truant  officers  was  made  mandatory,  as  in  the 
old  law  of  1889,  instead  of  permissive  as  in  1893,  but  the  much- 
desired  provision  for  a  parental  school  was  not  included  in  the 
statute.  The  improvements  made  were  obviously  too  slight 
to  be  of  any  real  value.  In  fact,  nothing  short  of  compulsory 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  EDUCATION  LAWS  85 

attendance  during  the  entire  school  term,  and  a  good  parental 
school,  could  really  take  the  children  off  the  streets  and  place 
them  in  the  schoolroom.  Hope  of  any  successful  results  from 
the  new  laws  was  short-lived.1  Renewed  pressure  for  an  ade- 
quate law  was  brought  to  bear  on  public  opinion,  on  the  Board 
of  Education,  and  on  the  legislature,  by  the  report  of  an  edu- 
cational commission  that  had  been  authorized  by  the  City 
Council  in  December,  1897,  appointed  by  Mayor  Harrison  in 
January,  1898,  and  which  reported  in  1899.  This  commission 
in  dealing  with  the  subject  of  compulsory  attendance  reported 
that  the  principle  of  compulsory  school  attendance  had  become 
well  established,  but  that  a  more  adequate  law  was  needed  in 
Illinois,  and  also  recommended  the  "establishment  of  one  or 

1  That  such  hope  was  entertained  is  clear  enough.  The  Committee  on 
Compulsory  Education  reported  in  1897:  "The  great  difficulty  heretofore 
has  been  in  a  defective  law.  Evidence  to  convict  negligent  parents  has  not 
been  easy  of  access.  The  recent  legislature,  however,  remedied  some  of 
these  defects,  and  now  mandatory  features  have  supplemented  evasive 
provisions. 

"It  has  been  optional  with  boards  of  education  in  our  state  as  to 
whether  a  department  of  compulsory  education  should  be  maintained. 
Now  there  is  a  strict  requirement  in  this  regard,  and  we  herewith  present 
the  statute  in  force  which  makes  it  possible  to  institute  legal  proceedings 
against  offending  parents  or  guardians." — Forty-third  Annual  Report  of  the 
Board  of  Education  of  Chicago  (1897),  p.  155. 

After  a  year's  work  under  the  law  the  superintendent  of  compulsory 
education  reported  as  follows:  "The  law  under  which  we  are  working  is 
much  better  than  the  old  one.  In  nearly  all  instances  we  succeeded  in 
bringing  delinquent  parents  to  terms.  We  have  served  about  fifty  notices, 
and  in  only  one  case  the  department  deemed  it  necessary  to  prosecute,  and 
the  negligent  parent  was  fined.  We  should  rightfully  have  the  power  to 
arrest  all  these  little  beggars,  loafers  and  vagabonds  that  infest  our  city, 
take  them  from  the  streets  and  place  them  in  schools  where  they  are  com- 
pelled to  receive  education  and  learn  moral  principles";  and  again  it  is 
emphatically  stated  that  "we  certainly  should  not  permit  a  reckless  and 
indifferent  part  of  our  population  to  rear  their  children  in  ignorance  to 
become  a  criminal  and  lawless  class  within  our  community." — Forty- 
fourth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago  (1898),  p.  170. 


86     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

more  parental  schools  for  the  forcible  detention  of  persistently 
refractory  pupils.1" 

In  the  year  1899,  the  legislature  finally  passed  the  parental 
or  truant  school  law,  which  provided  that  cities  having  a 
population  of  100,000  or  more  must  establish  "one  or  more 
parental  schools  for  the  purpose  of  affording  a  place  of  confine- 
ment, discipline,  instruction,  and  maintenance  for  children  of 
compulsory  school  age  who  may  be  committed  thereto."  In 
accordance  with  the  provisions  of  this  law,  children  who  would 
not  go  to  school,  that  is,  children  who  were  truants  or  children 
who  went  to  school  but  while  there  behaved  so  badly  as  to 
render  themselves  a  nuisance  and  make  their  attendance  worse 
than  useless,  could  be  committed  either  by  the  Circuit  or 
County  Court  to  the  parental  school  for  custody,  discipline, 
and  training.  At  the  same  session  of  the  legislature  the  juvenile 
court  law  was  passed  and  the  newly  established  juvenile 
branches  of  the  circuit  courts  were  authorized  to  exercise  such 
jurisdiction  as  was  bestowed  upon  circuit  or  county  courts  in 
all  matters  pertaining  to  children  of  school  age.  It  was  thus 
provided  that  truant  or  unruly  school  children  were  to  be  com- 
mitted to  the  newly  established  parental  schools  through  the 
agency  of  the  Juvenile  Court.  It  should  be  added  that  although 
the  word  "children"  as  used  in  the  statutes  should  include  both 
girls  and  boys,  parental  schools  have  been  established  for  boys 
only. 

1  Recommendations  of  Educational  Commission,  Article  XIV,  The 
Compulsory  Attendance  Law  and  a  Parental  School: 

"Your  Commission  respectfully  recommends: 

"Section  i.  That  steps  be  taken  toward  securing  a  more  adequate 
school  attendance  law,  and  that  the  question  be  considered  of  employing 
the  police  of  the  city  for  the  purpose  of  securing  a  more  effectual  enforce- 
ment of  the  same. 

"Section  2.  That  legislative  authority  be  secured  for  the  establish- 
ment of  one  or  more  parental  schools  for  the  forcible  detention  of  per- 
sistently refractory  pupils." — Report  of  Educational  Commission  of  City 
of  Chicago,  1899,  p.  160. 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  EDUCATION  LAWS  '  87 

The  year  1903  saw  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  the  long 
struggle  for  an  effective  compulsory  education  law.  Nearly  fifty 
years  before,  education  had  been  made  free.  More  than  twenty- 
five  years  later  the  "compulsory  principle"  had  been  accepted 
by  the  passage  of  a  law  entitled  "An  act  to  secure  to  all  children 
the  benefit  of  an  elementary  education";  but  this  law  was 
really  a  poor,  ineffective  measure,  requiring  only  twelve  weeks 
of  schooling  a  year  and  allowing  any  school  board  to  excuse 
any  child  for  any  cause;  moreover,  it  was  found  that  the  law, 
inadequate  as  it  was,  could  not  be  enforced.  In  1903  the  "act 
to  promote  attendance  of  children  in  schools  and  to  prevent 
truancy"  provided  that  all  children  between  seven  and  four- 
teen must  attend  some  public  or  private  school  for  the  entire 
time  during  which  the  school  attended  was  in  session,  and  this 
could  not  be  less  than  no  days  of  actual  teaching.  Moreover, 
it  allowed  no  exemption  save  for  physical  or  mental  incapacity. 
It  made  the  appointment  of  truant  officers  mandatory,  and  the 
prosecution  of  indifferent  and  recalcitrant  parents  possible. 

The  two  decades  between  the  acts  of  1883  and  1903  were 
influenced  by  a  social  reform  movement  which  had  educated 
public  opinion  to  demand  effective  compulsory  education  for 
its  future  citizens.  How  far  the  law  of  1903  has  also  proved 
inadequate  will  be  shown  in  the  later  chapters  of  this  volume. 
Amendments  were  adopted  in  1907  and  1909  in  order  to  bring 
children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  under  the  protection  of 
the  law,  but  these  amendments  have  failed  to  protect  the  chil- 
dren over  fourteen,  as  the  earlier  law  failed  to  protect  children 
under  fourteen,  because  there  is  no  institution,  corresponding  to 
the  parental  school,  to  which  these  older  children  can  be  com- 
mitted.1 As  the  parental  schools  are  provided  only  for  children 

'See  chap,  xx,  "The  Need  of  Compulsory  Education  for  Children 
between  Fourteen  and  Sixteen."  The  law  of  1907  extended  to  children 
between  fourteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age  the  provisions  of  the  compulsory 
education  law  which  had  heretofore  applied  to  children  between  seven  and 


88     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

under  fourteen  and  as  "necessary  and  lawful  employment" 
excuses  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  from  school 
attendance,  these  children  are  not  as  yet  effectively  protected. 

The  legislature  of  1903  not  only  made  radical  changes  in 
the  compulsory  education  law,  but  also  revolutionized  the  child 
labor  law,  so  that  it  provided  both  for  a  shorter  working  day 
and  working  week  for  children  under  sixteen  and  for  the  extension 
of  its  provisions  to  occupations  not  hitherto  brought  under 
regulation.  It  also  provided  that,  before  a  child  could  lawfully 
be  employed,  he  must  obtain  an  age  and  school  certificate, 
testifying  both  that  he  was  of  the  required  age  and  that  he  was 
able  to  read  and  write  simple  sentences. 

By  the  provisions  of  these  two  laws,  which  were  passed  in 
1903,  compulsory  school  attendance  was  for  the  first  time  made 
possible.  The  old  difficulty  of  ascertaining  whether  a  child 
had  attended  school  for  the  required  period  was  done  away  with 
by  extending  the  compulsory  period  to  cover  the  entire  school 
term.  The  old  inducement  to  fraudulent  evasion  of  the  law 
by  the  false  affidavits  of  parents  that  their  children  were  of 
working  age  was  ended  by  the  abolition  of  the  affidavit  system 
and  by  the  substitution  of  the  new  age  and  school  certificates 
which  should  be  issued  by  the  school  authorities  as  evidence 
of  the  child's  "right  to  work." 

After  reviewing  the  history  of  these  attempts  at  compulsory 
attendance  legislation,  we  are  inevitably  brought  to  the  ques- 
tion, How  far  is  education  really  compulsory  in  Chicago  or 
Illinois  today  ?  Is  the  present  law  entirely  adequate  and  satis- 
factory both  in  its  provisions  and  in  the  methods  adopted  for 
its  enforcement?  It  will  be  the  purpose  of  the  chapters  that 
follow  to  attempt  to  answer  these  questions. 

fourteen.  Unfortunately,  however,  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen 
were  to  be  excused  if  "  necessarily  and  lawfully  employed  during  the  hours 
when  the  public  school  is  in  session."  This  exemption  practically  nullified 
the  extension  of  the  law.  The  failure  of  this  attempt  to  provide  for  chil- 
dren between  fourteen  and  sixteen  will  be  discussed  later. 


PART  II 

PRESENT  CONDITIONS  AND  METHODS 
OF  TREATMENT 


CHAPTER  VI 

EXTENT  OF  TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO: 

A  STUDY  OF  THE  ATTENDANCE  RECORDS  OF 

NINE  SELECTED  SCHOOLS 

An  account  has  already  been  given  of  the  machinery  used 
by  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education  in  Chicago,  and 
the  history  of  the  statutes  requiring  this  machinery  has  been 
traced.  It  is  now  possible,  therefore,  to  discuss  the  problem 
of  school  attendance  as  it  presents  itself  today  in  Chicago 
and  in  the  suburban  districts  of  Cook  County.  A  study  of 
non-attendance  in  some  of  the  smaller  towns,  villages,  and  rural 
districts  in  the  state  would  also  be  of  great  interest,  but  the 
scope  of  the  present  study  has  been  necessarily  restricted  to 
Chicago  and  its  suburbs. 

The  first  question  of  interest  in  connection  with  such  a  prob- 
lem relates  to  the  extent  of  truancy  and  non-attendance.  That 
is,  in  studying  any  social  problem,  it  is  important  in  the  begin- 
ning to  obtain  if  possible  some  definite  facts  regarding  its  size 
and  importance. 

It  is  difficult,  however,  to  make  an  exact  statement  regard- 
ing the  number  of  truant  or  non-attending  children  in  Chicago 
during  the  past  year  or  during  any  previous  year.  Statistics 
are  published  each  year  by  the  Department  of  Compulsory 
Education,  showing  the  number  of  children  reported  to  the 
truant  officers,  the  number  of  children  brought  into  the  Juvenile 
Court,  and  the  number  of  parents  who  have  been  brought  into 
the  Municipal  Court  on  the  charge  of  violating  the  compulsory 
education  law.  But  these  statistics  represent  only  the  cases 
dealt  with  by  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education  and 
not  the  total  number  of  children  or  parents  who  have  violated 
the  law. 

89 


90     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

The  largest  group  of  children  dealt  with  by  the  Department 
of  Compulsory  Education  are  those  reported  to  the  truant 
officers  for  investigation.  Table  I  shows  the  number  of  children 
reported  to  the  truant  officers  for  investigation  and  the  number 
of  cases  in  which  the  children  were  returned  to  school  from  the 
time  of  the  organization  of  the  department  in  1889  to  the  present 


tune. 


TABLE  I 


NUMBER  OF  CHILDREN  REPORTED  TO  TRUANT  OFFICERS  FOR  INVESTIGA- 
TION AND  NUMBER  RETURNED  TO  SCHOOL* 


RETURNS 

Public  Schools 

Private  Schools 

Total 

1880—00   . 

17,463 

8,363 

I  436 

1890-91  

20,321; 

10,^81 

673 

H)254 

1891-92  

I2,9O6 

7,IC7 

43« 

7,592 

1802—9-?.  . 

14,683 

6,024 

1,714 

7,738 

1803-04.  . 

8,371? 

3,02^ 

2O2 

3,227 

1894-9?.  . 

11,878 

4,0^2 

36? 

4,417 

189^-06.  . 

13,121 

c,7io 

2IO 

S.Q2O 

1806-07 

I3.QQO 

6,482 

80 

6,:;62 

1897-98 

i6,t;Q6 

Q.I43 

IOI 

Q  r>\\ 

1898-99.  . 

17,191; 

9,027 

67 

9,094 

1899—1900  

3I,?03 

16,490 

291 

l6,78l 

1900-1901  

33,684 

18,621 

178 

l8,799 

1901—2  

33.OO2 

18,411 

174 

18,1585 

1902—3.  . 

33»6l7 

17,134 

136 

I7,27O 

1903-4    . 

36^l6 

2I,6l  I 

237 

21,848 

1004-1; 

2^,247 

3^0 

2C,i;97 

IQO^-6 

35...t 

26,888 

1006—7 

3O.OI4 

ijoca 

3  1  ,066 

1907-8  

33,912 

3,583 

37,495 

1908—9.  . 

See 

38,122 

8,362 

46,484 

1909—10.  . 

•explanation 

44,472 

12,525 

56,997 

1910-11  

in  text 

48,770 

12,601 

61,371 

1911-12  

so,  301 

13,554 

<>3,855t 

1912—13.  . 

59,696^ 

1013-14.  . 

46.760 

ii,2o<; 

S8,o64t 

*It  should  be  noted  that  these  figures  show  not  the  number  of  children  but  the  number  of 
"returns"  to  school.  One  child  may  have  been  returned  several  times. 

fCorresponding  figures  not  published. 

{Does  not  include  truants  returned  to  school,  since  the  returns  to  public  and  private 
schools  are  not  given  for  absence  due  to  truancy  in  these  years. 


EXTENT  OF  TRUANCY  IN  CHICAGO  91 

Beginning  with  the  year  1904-5,  the  reports  of  the  depart- 
ment do  not  give  separate  figures  for  "investigations"  and 
"  returns."  The  totals  from  that  date  given  in  this  table  under 
returns  are  referred  to  in  the  reports  of  the  department  as 
"investigated  and  returned"  or  "returnable  absences  investi- 
gated." 

Obviously,  the  increase  in  the  number  of  children  for  whom 
the  services  of  the  truant  officer  were  needed  should  be  com- 
pared with  the  increase  in  the  total  number  of  children  attending 
school.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  reports  of  the  depart- 
ment give,  not  the  total  number  of  children,  but  the  number  of 
returns  made,  and  one  child  may  have  been  returned  several 
times.  It  seems  unprofitable,  therefore,  to  attempt  to  make  a 
more  exact  comparison  of  the  work  of  the  department  in  differ- 
ent years  by  percentage  increases,  but  attention  should  be  called 
to  the  fact  that  the  increase  in  truancy  indicated  by  the  increase 
in  the  number  of  children  returned  to  school  is  probably  not 
greater  than  it  should  be  in  comparison  with  the  increase  in 
the  total  number  of  children  attending  school. 

Attention  should  be  called  to  another  point  of  importance 
indicated  in  the  table — the  sudden  increase  in  the  number  of 
children  from  private  schools,  beginning  in  the  year  1907-8. 
This  increase  is  to  be  explained  by  the  extension  of  the  authority 
of  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education  to  the  private 
schools  in  March,  1908,  which  will  be  discussed  in  a  later 
chapter.1 

For  these  last  four  years  then,  there  have  been  each  year 
about  60,000  cases  of  absent  children  referred  to  the  truant 
officers  for  investigation  and  for  the  most  part  returned  to  school. 
How  far  the  absences  of  these  tens  of  thousands  of  children  were 
justified,  there  is  no  way  of  determining.  Certainly  only  a  very 
small  percentage  were  "wilful  truants."  Statistics  published 

1  See  chap,  x,  "The  Habitual  Truant  and  the  Schoolroom  Incorrigible," 
P-  154- 


92     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

in  the  annual  reports  of  the  Board  of  Education  throw  further 
light  on  this  point.  Thus,  for  the  year  1913-14,  the  last  year 
for  which  a  published  report  is  available,  there  were  in  addition 
to  the  58,064  children  whose  absences  were  investigated,  3,399 
children  who  are  described  in  the  report  as  "wilful  truants." 
Records  of  the  Juvenile  Court  show  further  that  there  were 
during  the  same  year  496  boys  and  3  girls  brought  into  the 
Juvenile  Court,  and  the  reports  of  the  board  show  that  1,236 
parents  were  warned  by  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Edu- 
cation that  unless  their  children  were  promptly  placed  in  school 
they  would  be  prosecuted  in  the  Municipal  Court  by  the  depart- 
ment because  all  other  methods  had  failed  to  make  them  comply 
with  the  provisions  of  the  compulsory  attendance  laws. 

Although  the  number  of  truant  children  who  have  passed 
through  the  hands  of  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education 
makes  a  large  total,  these  figures  represent  only  a  small  pro- 
portion of  the  truancy  and  non-attendance  of  any  year.  For 
there  are  always  children  absent  without  cause  who  are  merely 
warned  by  the  principal  and  not  referred  to  a  truant  officer; 
there  are  also  those  children  whose  absence  from  school  has 
escaped  the  notice  of  the  school  authorities  entirely;  and 
finally  there  are  the  children  supposed  by  the  principal  and 
the  teachers  to  be  absent  for  what  is  considered  sufficient 
cause  or  "a  good  excuse."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  a  large 
majority  of  cases,  only  a  very  careful  investigation  made  in  the 
home  can  show  whether  or  not  the  child's  absence  is  really 
necessary  or  not. 

Children  "excused  for  cause"  are,  of  course,  regarded  by 
the  school  authorities,  not  as  wilful  truants,  but  as  non-attending 
children  absent  for  excusable  reasons  and  therefore  not  in  need 
of  discipline.  But  the  effect  of  non-attendance  is  as  disastrous 
to  educational  progress  as  is  truancy  itself,  for  whether  the 
child's  absence  is  sanctioned  by  the  parents  or  is  in  opposition 
to  their  wishes,  that  is,  whether  the  child  is  a  non-attendant 


EXTENT  OF  TRUANCY  IN  CHICAGO  93 

or  a  truant,  the  effect  upon  his  school  work  is  the  same.  He 
misses  the  school  session,  falls  behind  in  his  school  work,  and 
suffers  the  demoralizing  consequences  of  irregularity.  There 
will,  of  course,  always  be  a  residuum  of  non-attendance  due  to 
causes  that  cannot  be  removed.  What  is  needed  is  that  this 
residuum  shall  be  an  "irreducible  minimum."  A  study  of  non- 
attendance  and  its  causes  is  therefore  a  matter  of  supreme 
educational  and  social  importance,  in  order  that  any  absences 
beyond  this  irreducible  minimum  may  be  prevented.  The 
vast,  the  overwhelming  majority  of  all  children  receive  their 
only  education  in  the  elementary  schools,  and  much  effort  has 
been  made  to  improve  the  work  in  these  schools.  The  time 
that  these  children  spend  in  the  grades  is  too  valuable  to  be  lost; 
they  have  neither  high  school  nor  university  beyond;  they  will 
never  have  any  help  from  private  teachers  or  from  travel,  and 
they  will  learn  little  from  their  environment;  they  have  in  most 
cases  only  uneducative  and  uninteresting  work  before  them,  and 
if  they  do  not  get  from  the  school  an  interest  in  reading  or  con- 
tinued self-development,  their  educational  loss  is  likely  to  have 
its  further  effect  in  a  deterioration  of  character. 

The  effect  of  non-attendance  can  only  be  ascertained  by 
carefully  compiled  statistics  of  absences.  But  in  Chicago  as  in 
other  cities,  published  school  reports  do  not  contain  such  statis- 
tics. "Average  daily  attendance"  throws  no  light  on  this 
problem.  What  is  needed  is  a  table  or  series  of  tables  showing  • 
the  number  of  children  who  have  been  absent  different  periods 
of  time  varying  from  one  day  or  one  week  to  longer  periods  of 
time.  Since  tables  of  this  sort  are  not  now  available,  it  seemed 
important  to  undertake  a  careful  study  of  the  attendance 
records  of  a  few  schools  in  the  hope  that  statistics  of  non- 
attendance  in  a  small  number  of  selected  schools  might  throw 
light  on  the  whole  problem  of  school  attendance  in  Chicago. 

In  order  to  be  able  to  formulate,  if  possible,  some  definite 
statement  regarding  the  problem  of  non-attendance  as  distin- 


94     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

guished  from  the  more  specialized  problem  of  truancy,  records 
of  nine  elementary  schools  in  Chicago  were  analyzed.  These 
schools  were  selected  from  different  sections  of  the  city  and  as 
far  as  possible  from  among  different  foreign  colonies,  because 
it  was  recognized  that  the  problem  of  non-attendance  might  be 
greater  in  some  groups  than  in  others.  All  the  districts  selected, 
however,  were  in  the  crowded  sections  of  the  city,  where  the 
question  of  school  attendance  is  of  the  utmost  importance  since 
absence  from  school  represents  loss  of  time  which  will  never  be 
made  up  in  ways  that  are  possible  to  children  from  more  fortu- 
nate homes.  In  the  well-to-do  sections  of  the  city,  the  question 
of  attendance,  while  it  may  be  a  school  problem,  is  not  a  social 
problem  of  importance  as  it  is  in  the  poor  and  congested  neigh- 
borhoods. 

The  elementary  schools  selected  for  this  study  of  records 
were  the  following:  (i)  the  Jackson  School,  in  the  Nineteenth 
Ward  on  the  West  Side,  predominantly  Italian  but  with  a  con- 
siderable number  of  Russian- Jewish  children;  (2)  the  Skinner 
School,  near  a  rooming-house  district  in  the  Eighteenth  Ward 
on  the  West  Side,  in  which  there  are  many  American  children; 
(3)  the  Tennyson  School,  which  is  also  on  the  West  Side  but 
in  a  more  prosperous  neighborhood,  in  which  the  children  are 
chiefly  Irish  and  American;  (4)  the  Kosciuszko  School,  in  the 
northwestern  part  of  the  city  in  a  congested  Polish  territory; 
(5)  the  Holden  School,  on  the  South  Side,  in  a  neighborhood 
chiefly  Lithuanian  and  Polish;  (6)  the  Thomas  School,  on  the 
North  Side,  which  is  predominantly  German  but  which  has 
many  Polish  children;  (7)  the  Moseley  School,  in  the  so-called 
"black  belt"  on  the  South  Side,  with  few  children  that  are 
not  colored;  (8)  the  Keith  School,  which  is  also  in  a  colored 
neighborhood  but  which  also  has  a  good  many  Irish,  American, 
and  German  children;  (9)  the  Jones  School,  in  a  downtown 
district  which  is  largely  Italian  but  in  which  a  large  variety 
of  nationalities  are  represented. 


EXTENT  OF  TRUANCY  IN  CHICAGO  95 

Statistics  of  absences  must,  of  course,  be  studied  together 
with  the  total  period  of  enrolment,  since,  obviously,  a  child 
who  has  been  in  a  school  for  ten  months  has  ten  times  as  many 
opportunities  for  absence  as  the  child  who  has  been  there  only 
one  month.  It  was  necessary,  therefore,  to  ascertain  from  the 
attendance  books  the  number  of  months  that  each  child  had 
been  on  the  books  of  the  school,  before  attempting  to  collect 
data  relating  to  absences.  Table  II  shows  for  the  nine  selected 
schools  the  total  number  of  children  enrolled  during  the  year 
and  the  number  of  months  during  which  the  different  children 
were  counted  members  of  the  school. 

This  table  shows  that  the  total  enrolment  of  these  schools 
for  the  entire  year  was  10,120,  and  that  the  period  of  enrolment 
was  accurately  ascertained  for  9,757  children.  Of  these,  4,863, 
or  approximately  50  per  cent,  were  in  attendance  during  the  ten 
months  of  the  school  session.  The  remaining  half  of  the 
children  were  members  of  these  schools  for  periods  of  varying 
length,  from  less  than  one  month  to  nearly  ten  months.  During 
the  weeks  or  months  when  they  were  not  counted  enrolled  mem- 
bers of  these  schools,  these  children  may  have  escaped  school 
entirely  or  they  may  have  attended  some  other  school.  The 
latter  alternative  unquestionably  applied  to  the  great  majority 
of  the  children  who  were  enrolled  less  than  ten  months,  and  the 
following  chapter,  which  deals  with  the  transfer  system,  shows 
that  during  a  single  year  many  children  attend  several  different 
schools,  so  that  the  period  of  enrolment  in  each  is  necessarily 
short.  The  next  step,  of  course,  was  to  ascertain  the  regularity 
of  attendance  during  the  period  of  enrolment.  But  since  it 
was  not  possible  to  obtain  the  attendance  records  for  the  entire 
year  for  the  children  who  were  enrolled  for  a  short  period,  and 
since  their  records  for  a  portion  of  the  year  would  not  be  fairly 
comparable  with  the  ten-month  attendance  records  of  other 
children,  it  was  thought  best  to  present  the  detailed  statistics 
of  absence,  not  for  the  entire  10,120  enrolled  children,  but  only 


96     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


TABLE  II 

NUMBER   OF  CHILDREN  ENROLLED  IN  NINE  SELECTED  SCHOOLS  WITH 
PERIOD  OP  ENROLMENT* 


PERIOD  OF  ENROLMENT 

BOYS 

GIRLS 

TOTAL 

Number 

Percentage 

Ten  months  (entire  school  year) 
Nine  months  and  less  than  ten  . 
Eight  months  and  less  than  nine 
Seven   months   and   less    than 
eight 

2,524 
245 
225 

215 
236 

3°7 
199 

254 
286 
289 
401 

2,339 
238 
205 

165 
190 
269 
158 
198 
225 
270 
319 

4,863 
483 
43° 

380 
426 
576 
357 
452 
5" 
559 
720 

50 
5 
4 

4 
4 
6 
4 
5 
5 
6 
7 

Six  months  and  less  than  seven 
Five  months  and  less  than  six.  . 
Four  months  and  less  than  five 
Three  months  and  less  than  four 
Two  months  and  less  than  three 
One  month  and  less  than  two  .  . 
Less  than  one  month  

Total  

5,i8i 
189 

4,576 
i?4 

9,757 
363 

100 

Period  of  enrolment  uncer- 
tain   

Total  enrolment  

5,370 

4,75° 

10,120 

*A  statement  regarding  the  method  of  compiling  data  from  the  school  records  may  be 
useful.  In  each  school  all  attendance  books  for  the  year  studied  were  collected  from  the 
different  rooms  and  deposited  in  the  principal's  office  during  the  process  of  compilation. 
The  attendance  record  for  the  entire  year  was  transcribed  for  each  child  who  had  been  enrolled 
for  any  period  whatever.  It  was  found,  however,  to  be  a  difficult  task  to  get  correct  results 
because  of  the  inaccuracy  of  some  of  the  teachers'  records.  Different  teachers  keep  their 
attendance  books  with  varying  degrees  of  accuracy,  and  some  of  them  are  so  carelessly  kept 
that  it  is  a  most  tedious  and  laborious  process  to  get  accurate  data  from  them.  For  example, 
on  the  third  consecutive  day  on  which  a  child  is  absent,  the  teacher  is  supposed  to  mark  him 
left,  designated  by  a  capital  "L,"  and  to  record  his  return  with  a  capital  "R."  In  some 
cases  the  child  is  never  marked  returned,  although  recorded  absences  at  a  later  date  show  that 
he  is  again  in  school.  In  such  a  case,  it  is  of  course  impossible  to  tell  how  long  the  child  was 
absent  unless  the  teacher  can  remember  the  date  of  his  return,  which  is  quite  unlikely.  In 
some  books  the  writing  was  so  slovenly  that  it  was  difficult  to  distinguish  the  capital  "L" 
from  the  "T"  for  tardy.  A  small  "1"  is  supposed  to  indicate  that  the  child  has  been  trans- 
ferred to  another  room  in  the  school;  after  the  "1"  the  number  of  the  room  should  follow. 
In  certain  cases  the  number  was  omitted,  and  no  one  of  the  other  books  gave  a  further  record 
of  the  child;  it  was  probable  that  the  teacher  used  a  small  "1"  when  she  should  have  used 
a  capital  "L."  The  teacher  should  mark  absences  for  each  school  session,  so  that  if  a  child 
is  absent  the  whole  day  there  should  be  two  marks  on  that  date.  Frequently  in  the  midst 
of  a  long  absence,  evidently  due  to  illness,  there  will  be  a  day  with  only  one  mark.  Or  if 
the  system  of  marking  "L"  on  the  third  day  of  absence  is  followed,  such  a  record  as  the 
following  will  be  found:  October  I,  two  absences;  October  2,  one  absence;  October  3,  left — 
obviously  a  failure  to  record  an  absence  on  the  second.  This  statement,  therefore,  explains 
why  it  was  necessary  to  include  in  the  table  363  children  whose  "period  of  enrolment  was 
uncertain." 


EXTENT  OF  TRUANCY  IN  CHICAGO 


97 


for  the  4,863  children  who  were  on  the  books  of  these  nine  schools 
for  the  entire  school  year. 

In  Table  III  the  number  of  boys  and  girls  who  attended 
school  for  ten  months  are  classified  according  to  the  number  of 
half-days  absent  during  the  year.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that 
it  was  not  possible  to  show  how  far  the  absences  were  con- 
secutive and  how  far  irregular,  since  a  long  consecutive  absence 
is  likely  to  mean  an  excusable  illness,  but  the  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  the  presentation  of  such  further  details  regarding  these 
absences  were  insuperable. 

TABLE  HI 

ATTENDANCE  RECORD  OF  HALF-DAYS'  ABSENCE  OF  2,524  BOYS  AND  2,339 
GIRLS  ENROLLED  FOR  TEN  MONTHS  IN  NINE  SELECTED  SCHOOLS 


BOYS 

GIRLS 

TOTAL 

HALF-DAYS  ABSENT 

Number 

Per- 
centage 

Number 

Per- 
centage 

Number 

Per- 
centage 

None 

QO 

01 

181 

i  and  less  than    5  .... 

226 

9 

177 

8 

403 

8 

S  and  less  than  10  .  .  .  . 

281 

II 

243 

10 

524 

II 

10  and  less  than  20  .... 

518 

20 

467 

20 

985 

20 

20  and  less  than  30  .... 

424 

17 

413 

18 

837 

17 

30  and  less  than  40  .... 

327 

13 

266 

ii 

593 

12 

40  and  less  than  50  .... 

2IO 

8 

IQ9 

9 

409 

9 

50  and  less  than  60.  .  .  . 

121 

5 

ISI 

7 

272 

6 

60  and  less  than  70  .... 

91 

4 

71 

3 

162 

3 

70  and  less  than  80.  ... 

71 

3 

67 

2 

138 

3 

80  half  -days  or  more  .  .  . 

I65 

6 

194 

8 

359 

7 

Total  

2,524 

IOO 

2,339 

IOO 

4,863 

IOO 

In  studying  this  table  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the 
4,863  children  whose  attendance  records  are  presented  here 
were  the  most  regular  in  attendance  of  all  the  10,120  children 
enrolled  in  these  nine  schools.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe 
that  attendance  records  for  the  remaining  5,257  children  who 
are  not  enrolled  for  ten  months  would  show  a  greater  number 


98    TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


of  absences  since  the  cases  of  failure  to  enrol  or  changes  in 
enrolment  are  very  frequently  due  to  the  same  causes  as 
irregularity  of  attendance  after  enrolment. 

Table  III  shows  that  the  percentage  of  absences  made  by 
boys  and  girls  corresponds  so  closely  that  it  is  not  necessary  to 
discuss  them  separately.  The  column  of  totals  shows  that  90 
boys  and  91  girls,  4  per  cent  of  those  children  who  were  on  the 
school  roll  for  ten  months,  did  not  lose  a  single  half-day  of 
school  during  the  entire  year. 

TABLE  rv 

CUMULATIVE  NUMBERS  AND  PERCENTAGES  SHOWING  ABSENCES  IN  THE 
EQUIVALENT  OF  WEEKS 


NUMBER 

NUMBER  OF  BOYS  AND  GIRLS  WHO  WERE  ABSENT  THE 
EQUIVALENT  OF 

8 
Weeks 
or 
More 

Weeks 
or 
More 

6 
Weeks 
or 
More 

We5eks 
or 

More 

Wreks 
or 
More 

We3aks 
or 
More 

Weeks 
or 
More 

Week 
or 
More 

Less 

than 

Wuk 

Number  

359 
7 

497 

10 

659 
13 

19 

1,34° 
28 

1,933 
40 

2,770 
57 

3,755 
77 

1,108 
23 

Percentage  

Table  IV  has  been  prepared  from  the  column  of  totals  in 
Table  III  because  the  cumulative  numbers  and  percentages 
give  a  convenient  summary  of  the  number  of  absences.  In  this 
table  it  appears  that  77  per  cent,  or  more  than  three-fourths  of 
the  children  who  were  enrolled  for  ten  months,  were  absent  ten 
half-days,  the  equivalent  of  one  week,  or  more;  that  more  than 
half  of  these  4,863  children  lost  the  equivalent  of  two  weeks' 
schooling  or  more;  that  40  per  cent  were  absent  the  equivalent 
of  three  weeks  or  more;  that  28  per  cent  were  absent  the  equiva- 
lent of  four  weeks  or  more  and  lost  at  least  a  full  month's  work; 
that  7  per  cent  lost  the  equivalent  of  two  months'  schooling. 

If  the  other  children  who  were  enrolled  for  shorter  periods 
of  time  were  no  more  irregular  than  the  4,863  whose  absences 


EXTENT  OF  TRUANCY  IN  CHICAGO  99 

appear  in  Table  III,  it  would  mean  that  out  of  the  10,120  boys 
and  girls  attending  these  nine  schools,  only  about  375  were  not 
absent  at  all  and  that  over  5,700  children  were  absent  more 
than  twenty  half -days,  and  that  more  than  2,700  had  lost 
a  month  or  more  of  schooling  during  the  year. 

The  nine  schools,  in  which  attendance  records  were  studied, 
furnished  about  4  per  cent  of  the  total  enrolment  of  children  in 
public  elementary  schools  in  Chicago.  They  furnished  approxi- 
mately 5  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  children  brought  into 
court  during  the  year  as  truants  or  schoolroom  incorrigibles. 
It  is,  of  course,  not  easy  to  determine  how  far  the  attendance 
records  of  these  selected  schools  may  be  said  to  furnish  a 
random  sample  of  the  records  of  all  the  elementary  schools  in 
the  city  and  whether  or  not  they  may  be  used  as  a  basis  for 
estimating  the  extent  of  non-attendance  in  the  whole  city. 
While  attendance  in  these  schools  in  the  poorer  districts  of  the 
city  is  perhaps  more  irregular  than  in  other  parts  of  Chicago, 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  great  majority  of  children  in 
most  of  our  public  schools  come  from  similarly  poor  and  con- 
gested neighborhoods.  (It  may  also  be  recalled  again  that 
these  percentages  of  absence  are  based  on  the  attendance 
records  of  the  children  who  were  probably  most  regular  in 
attendance  throughout  the  year.) 

The  total  enrolment  in  public  elementary  schools  for  the 
entire  school  year  was  257,42 1 .  If  the  attendance  records  of  the 
children  presented  in  Table  IV  be  accepted  as  typical  of  the 
whole  city,  then  there  were  in  the  public  elementary  schools  in 
Chicago  hi  round  numbers  19,000  children  who  were  absent 
eighty  half-days  or  more,  and  who  lost  therefore  the  equivalent 
of  two  months'  schooling  during  the  year;  35,000  who  lost  six 
weeks  or  more;  49,300  who  lost  five  weeks  or  more;  71,000  who 
lost  a  month  or  more;  102,400  children  who  were  absent  the 
equivalent  of  three  weeks  or  more;  and  146,800  children  who 
lost  at  least  a  fortnight's  schooling. 


ioo     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

General  tables  such  as  have  been  presented  do  not  throw 
much  light  on  the  more  difficult  aspects  of  the  problem  of  school 
attendance.  One  wishes  to  know  the  ages  and  the  grades  of  the 
absent  children,  the  kind  of  homes  they  come  from,  and  above 
all  the  excuses  given  for  their  absence.  Since  information  with 
regard  to  the  last  two  questions  could  be  obtained  only  by  a 
visit  to  the  homes  of  absent  children,  a  more  detailed  investi- 
gation of  attendance  records  as  well  as  of  the  causes  of  absence 
was  undertaken  for  two  selected  schools.  Before  considering 
these  subjects,  however,  it  seems  worth  while  to  examine  an 
important  factor  in  the  non-attendance  problem  that  is  directly 
connected  with  the  question  of  attendance  statistics,  the  system 
by  which  children  are  transferred  from  one  public  school  to 
another  and  back  and  forth  from  public  to  parochial  schools. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  TRANSFER  SYSTEM  AS  A  FACTOR  IN  NON-ATTENDANCE 

Quite  distinct  from  the  question  of  irregular  attendance 
of  children  enrolled  on  the  books  of  the  school  and  under  the 
supervision  of  the  school  authorities  is  the  problem  of  the 
children  who  are  not  enrolled  at  all  and  who  have  successfully 
escaped  the  notice  of  the  teacher,  principal,  and  truant  officer. 
There  are  at  least  three  groups  of  such  children:  (i)  the  children 
of  newly  arrived  immigrants  who  in  some  cases  remain  unknown 
to  the  school  authorities  for  a  considerable  period  after  their 
arrival;  (2)  the  children  in  families  that  have  moved  to  Chicago 
from  the  country  or  from  some  other  city  and  have  found  it 
more  convenient,  pending  discovery,  to  keep  one  or  more  of 
the  children  at  home  than  to  enter  them  in  school;  (3)  the  chil- 
dren who  take  transfers  from  one  school  and  then  delay  enrol- 
ling or  fail  to  enrol  at  all  in  the  new  school.  Only  this  last 
group  will  be  considered  in  this  chapter. 

The  transfer  problem  involves  irregularity  of  attendance 
as  well  as  a  wholesale  escape  from  school,  and  statistics  regard- 
ing the  amount  of  time  lost  through  lack  of  supervision  of 
transferred  children  should  be  considered  in  connection  with 
other  statistics  of  absence.  An  effort  was  made  to  obtain,  if 
possible,  the  necessary  data  for  making  a  definite  statement 
regarding  the  amount  of  schooling  lost  through  a  failure  to 
present  transfers  promptly. 

No  statistics  on  this  subject  could  be  obtained,  and  it  was 
necessary  to  follow  the  transferred  children  from  one  school  to 
another  in  order  to  compare  the  dates  of  leaving  the  old  school 
with  the  date  of  enrolment  at  the  new  school.  The  names  and 
addresses  of  the  children  to  whom  transfers  had  been  issued 


102     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

were  obtained  from  the  nine  selected  elementary  schools  already 
discussed.  From  these  schools,  the  Skinner,  Jackson,  Holden, 
Kosciuszko,  Thomas,  Tennyson,  Keith,  Moseley,  and  Jones, 
representing  as  has  been  shown  an  enrolment  of  10,120,  or  4  per 
cent  of  the  public  elementary  school  population,  and  an  aver- 
age daily  attendance  of  7,397,*  the  names  and  the  addresses 
of  770  children  to  whom  transfer  slips  had  been  issued  were 
secured.  Of  these  770,  652  or  85  per  cent  were  apparently 
transferred  to  other  public  schools,  and  118  or  15  per  cent  to 
various  parochial  schools.  These  770  slips  represent  only  a 
small  proportion  of  the  total  number  of  transfers  issued,  since 
the  record  books,  as  has  been  indicated,  were  in  many  cases 
carelessly  kept.  Moreover,  many  of  the  children  who  were 
given  transfers  could  not  be  traced,  since  several  of  the  schools 
kept  no  record  either  of  the  new  school  or  of  the  new  address  to 
which  the  child  was  going  and  merely  marked  the  child  "  trans- 
ferred."2 This  seemed  to  be  particularly  true  of  transfers  from 

1  Fifty-seventh  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago, 
p.  163. 

1  Of  the  770  transfers  followed,  563  were  issued  in  one  school  year,  and 
207  in  the  succeeding  year.  The  records  of  some  of  the  schools  cover  the 
whole  period  of  a  year  and  a  half,  but  in  other  schools  the  records  of  trans- 
fers were  so  poorly  kept  for  part  of  the  time  as  not  to  be  usable.  A  more 
detailed  statement  regarding  the  method  of  obtaining  information  regarding 
transfers  may  be  of  interest.  In  the  first  place  it  was  found  to  be  very 
difficult  to  obtain  the  names  of  transferred  children  from  the  school  records. 
The  method  of  issuing  transfers  is  not  uniform  in  different  schools,  and  there 
is  also  wide  variation  in  the  method  of  keeping  records.  In  three  out  of 
the  nine  schools  duplicate  transfer  slips  were  written,  one  for  the  child  and 
one  to  be  kept  in  the  school  office,  and  in  two  of  these  schools  it  was  possible 
to  obtain  from  the  attendance  books  or  registers  additional  information 
which  made  it  possible  to  follow  up  the  children  with  greater  success.  For 
the  six  other  schools  no  transfer  duplicates  were  kept.  In  one  of  these 
schools  the  card  catalogue  register  was  used  to  ascertain  the  names  and  the 
addresses  of  transferred  pupils  and  in  the  five  remaining  schools,  no  infor- 
mation was  available  except  such  as  could  be  found  in  the  registers  or  attend- 
ance books.  These,  it  has  already  been  said,  are  kept  with  varying  degrees 


THE  TRANSFER  SYSTEM  103 

public  to  parochial  schools.  Transfers  of  this  sort  have  been 
of  frequent  occurrence  in  recent  years  in  Chicago,  and  if  the 
children  who  ask  for  transfers  because  they  are  going  to 
parochial  schools  are  not  followed  up,  there  is  an  opportunity 
for  a  considerable  amount  of  absence  from  school  between  the 
two  enrolments. 

After  the  transfer  slips  had  been  obtained,  each  slip  was 
taken  to  the  new  school  named,  and  the  record  of  the  child's 
entrance  was  examined  to  ascertain  the  date  of  re-enrolment. 
It  was  possible,  however,  to  trace  only  574  of  the  770  children 
who  had  "taken  transfers,"  leaving  196  children  for  whom  no 
information  was  secured. 

It  is  not  probable  that  all  these  196  "lost"  children  failed 
to  re-enter  school;  indeed  some  may  have  entered  promptly  the 
school  to  which  they  were  transferred;  but  if  so,  there  was  no 

of  care  and  accuracy.  In  one  such  school  all  the  records  were  so  clear  and 
so  apparently  accurate  that  it  seemed  possible  that  all  transfers  were 
regularly  recorded  with  the  name  of  the  school  to  which  the  child  was  to  be 
transferred.  Several  other  schools  recorded  children  as  "transferred," 
sometimes  with,  sometimes  without,  the  name  of  the  new  school;  sometimes 
with  a  "P.S."  to  signify  parochial  school,  but  making  no  mention  of  which 
one.  The  school  from  which  the  most  complete  set  of  duplicate  slips  was 
obtained  gave  clues  mainly  to  public  schools.  It  was  said  that  "children 
go  constantly  back  and  forth"  between  this  school  and  near-by  parochial 
schools,  but  out  of  138  transfers  issued  only  six  were  to  parochial  schools, 
which  seems  a  small  number  to  represent  this  "constantly  going  back 
and  forth"  for  a  period  of  nearly  a  year  (from  January  to  December). 
Apparently  no  special  records  were  kept  of  transfers  or  changes  to  parochial 
schools,  and  most  of  the  children  going  to  them  were  marked  with  a  large 
L  for  left,  or  were  simply  dropped  with  a  small  1  after  three  days'  absence 
without  any  formality  of  transfer. 

It  should  be  recalled  that  the  authoritative  records  are  not  the  attend- 
ance books  and  the  register,  but  the  teacher's  "diary,"  described  as  "an 
undigested  mass  of  details  divided  by  room  and  day,"  so  that,  as  an  investi- 
gator said,  "the  only  way  to  learn  what  you  want  to  know,  i.e.,  the  date  of 
entering  or  leaving  and  the  grade,  is  to  know  the  grade  and  the  day  on  which 
the  child  came  or  went."  With  this  information  the  entry  might  be  found. 


104     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

record  of  the  fact,  nor  could  the  child  be  found  by  searching 
every  classroom.  The  principals  differed  greatly  in  their  will- 
ingness to  assist  in  this  search.  Some  inquired  in  every  room, 
while  others  would  do  nothing  more  than  examine  the  record 
and  try  to  recall  the  child's  name.  In  one  school  to  which 
seventeen  children  had  been  transferred  only  three  of  them 
could  be  found.  In  a  number  of  cases  where  the  children 
were  traced,  they  were  found  in  a  different  school  from  that  to 
which  the  transfer  had  been  issued.  In  some  cases,  the  child 
had,  however,  entered  the  school  that  was  nearest  to  the  new 
address  to  which  the  family  had  moved.  In  these  cases,  of 
course,  the  principal  had  issued  a  transfer  to  the  wrong  school. 

There  seemed  to  be  a  great  slackness  in  the  dating  of  the 
transfer  records.  In  a  considerable  number  of  cases  the  dates 
given  fell  on  Saturday  or  Sunday,  and  in  some  cases  the  child 
was  recorded  as  continuing  to  attend  for  periods  of  from  one  to 
twenty  days  after  the  date  given  as  the  date  of  transfer. 

Similar  slackness  was  of  course  found  in  entering  the  facts 
concerning  the  child's  entrance  at  the  new  school.  That  is, 
a  system  which  is  careless  about  children  who  go  will  be  equally 
careless  about  the  children  who  come.  The  date  recorded  as 
the  date  of  entrance  was  often  the  first  of  the  month  or  the  first 
of  the  week,  sometimes  Sunday.  Sometimes  the  recorded  date 
of  entering  one  school  antedated  the  date  of  leaving  the  other 
school.  This  might  be  explained  by  the  child's  attempting  to 
make  the  transfer  without  complying  with  the  formalities.  In 
51  cases  (31  among  the  481  children  traced  to  public  schools,  and 
20  among  the  93  traced  to  parochial  schools)  the  record  of  date 
of  entrance  was  so  obviously  inaccurate  that  no  estimate  of  the 
time  lost  by  the  transfer  could  be  made. 

The  significance  of  these  facts  is  of  course  far  greater  than 
appears  on  the  surface.  No  business  concern  would  tolerate 
a  system  of  bookkeeping  that  left  important  facts  to  be  hunted 
out  of  a  mass  of  unclassified  material,  and  that  made  it  impos- 


THE  TRANSFER  SYSTEM  105 

sible  to  tell  where  certain  of  its  raw  material,  its  money  or  its 
output,  had  been  during  a  considerable  time,  and  that  left  from 
a  quarter  to  two-thirds  quite  unaccounted  for.  Nor  would 
a  business  concern,  working  with  delicate  or  valuable  material, 
employing  many  highly  paid  skilled  workers  and  especially 
trained  foremen,  do  without  stenographers  or  bookkeepers, 
relying  instead  on  the  reports  of  the  individual  workers  and  an 
occasional  gathering  together  and  classifying  of  the  facts  of 
these  reports.  The  community  will  surely  come  to  realize  that 
it  is  as  important  for  it  to  know  what  becomes  of  its  children 
as  for  manufacturers  to  know  about  their  raw  materials  in 
process  of  manufacture. 

The  transfer  system  is  complicated  by  the  fact  that  children 
may  go  not  only  from  one  school  to  another,  but  from  one  school 
system  to  an  entirely  different  one.  The  issuing  of  transfers 
between  public  and  parochial  schools,  which  are  under  quite 
distinct  management,  creates  a  serious  problem.  Many  children 
are  said  to  leave  the  public  for  the  parochial  school  without 
obtaining  transfers.  Principals  said  that  they  gave  transfers 
to  parochial  schools  and  got  none  from  them.  On  the  other 
hand,  sisters  superior  complained  that  while  they  gave  transfers 
to  public  schools  the  public  schools  either  failed  or  refused  to 
recognize  them  in  the  same  way.  And  there  seems  to  be  ground 
for  complaint  on  both  sides.  In  tracing  children  who  took 
transfers  from  public  schools,  it  appeared  that  the  children  who 
went  from  the  public  to  the  parochial  school  lost  a  larger  number 
of  school  days  than  those  who  went  from  one  public  school 
to  another.  That  is,  it  seemed  in  general  to  be  true  that  an 
unduly  large  proportion  of  long  absences  occurred  in  trans- 
fers from  public  to  parochial  schools,  the  children  feeling  no 
doubt  greater  security  from  detection  in  passing  from  one 
school  authority  to  another. 

It  is  not  intended  to  suggest  that  no  attention  is  given 
the  subject  of  transfers  by  the  Department  of  Compulsory 


106     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Education.  The  published  reports  of  the  department  have 
given  each  year  since  the  school  year  1906-7  the  number  of 
cases  of  transferred  children  investigated  by  the  department, 
and  there  has  been  a  very  considerable  increase  in  the  number 
of  such  investigations  since  our  inquiry  was  begun.  The  reports 
of  the  department  show,  for  example,  the  number  of  "  transfer 
cards"  investigated  as  follows:  942  in  the  school  year  1906-7; 
343  in  1907-8;  362  in  1908-9;  243  in  1909-10;  478  in  1910-11; 
735  in  1911-12;  613  in  1912-13;  and  1,325  in  1913-14.  Unfor- 
tunately the  reports  of  the  Board  of  Education  have  never 
published  the  total  number  of  transfers  issued,  so  the  propor- 
tionate number  investigated  cannot  be  determined. 

In  spite  of  the  difficulties  encountered  in  tracing  transfer 
slips  and  in  spite  of  imperfections  of  the  school  records,  it 
seemed  possible  to  ascertain  the  time  lost  by  485  transferred 
children  between  leaving  the  old  school  and  entering  the  new 
school.  In  Table  V  is  given  the  number  of  days  lost  between 
the  recorded  date  of  transfer  from  one  school  and  the  date  of 
admittance  to  the  other.  Where  the  date  of  entrance  was  the 
same  as  the  date  of  transfer  or  the  school  day  next  following, 
the  child  was  counted  as  having  made  the  transfer  without 
losing  any  school  days.  In  some  cases  where  the  child  was 
traced  the  records  were  obviously  inaccurate  and  were  there- 
fore discarded. 

From  this  table  it  appears,  as  it  should,  that  the  largest 
single  groups  presented  their  transfers  promptly  and  entered 
the  second  school  without  loss  of  tune.  Out  of  the  485,  how- 
ever, whose  records  were  obtained,  250  lost  one  or  more 
days,  135  lost  more  than  three  days  while  91  lost  more  than  a 
week,  62  lost  more  than  two  weeks,  45  more  than  three  weeks, 
35  lost  four  whole  weeks  or  more.  There  were,  of  course, 
some  extreme  cases,  for  the  children  in  the  last  group  lost  from 
six  to  thirty-two  weeks  of  school.  It  must  not  be  overlooked 
that  these  numbers  represent  the  recorded  losses  by  transfers 


THE  TRANSFER  SYSTEM 


107 


from  nine  schools,  representing  about  4  per  cent  of  the  city's 
enrolment.  This  table  does  not  include  the  lost  children  who 
could  not  be  traced  at  all,  nor  those  whose  records  were  too 
inaccurate  to  be  used. 

TABLE    V 

NUMBER  OF  SCHOOL  DAYS  LOST  BY  CHILDREN  GIVEN  TRANSFERS  FROM 
NINE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 


SCHOOL  DAYS  LOST 

A.  NUMBERS  AND 
PERCENTAGES 

SCHOOL  DAYS  LOST 

B.  CUMULATIVE 
NUMBERS  AND 
PERCENTAGES 

Children 
Transferred 

Children 
Transferred 

Number 

Per- 
centage 

Number 

Per- 
centage 

None  

235 
"5 
44 
29 

i? 
10 

12 

23 

48 
24 

9 
6 
3 

2 

3 

5 

More  than  5  weeks  .  . 
More  than  4  weeks  .  . 
More  than  3  weeks  .  . 
More  than  2  weeks  .  . 
More  than  i  week  .  .  . 
More  than  3  days  .  .  . 
i  day  or  more  

23 
35 
45 
62 

9i 
135 
250 

235 

5 
7 
9 
13 
19 
28 

53 

48 

i  to  3  days.  . 

4  to  5  days  

6  to  10  days  

ii  to  15  days  

16  to  20  days  

21  to  25  days  

More  than  25  days.  .  . 
Total  

No  time  

Total  

485* 

IOO 

485* 

IOO 

*Out  of  the  total  of  770  transfers,  285  are  not  included  in  this  table  because  the  child's 
record  could  not  be  accurately  traced. 

The  ages  of  the  children  transferred  showed  that  the  children 
of  compulsory  school  age  were  more  prompt  in  reporting  when 
they  changed  schools  than  the  children  under  seven.  For  ex- 
ample, an  examination  of  the  slips  showed  that  only  52  per 
cent  of  those  of  compulsory  school  age  lost  time  while  trans- 
ferring, while  69  per  cent  of  the  younger  ones  failed  to  make 
immediate  connections.  Parents  know  that  the  little  children 
are  not  compelled  to  attend;  and  slight  considerations  of  family 
inconvenience  are  enough  to  keep  the  young  children  at  home. 
The  disturbance  of  moving  and  settling  even  very  simple 


io8     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

household  goods  in  a  new  place  would  often  be  more  than  a 
sufficient  excuse. 

No  system  of  recording,  however  careful,  would  reveal  the 
real  significance  of  this  loss  to  the  children;  for,  as  has  been  said, 
there  is  no  limit  placed  on  the  number  of  transfers  that  can  be 
made  in  a  school  year.  Change  in  school  does  not  of  course 
always  mean  change  in  the  neighborhood.  The  possibility  of 
leaving  the  public  for  the  parochial  school  and  again  returning 
or  passing  on  to  another  is  always  present.  Only  by  referring 
to  the  actual  experience  of  the  children  can  the  waste  in  the 
child's  life  and  in  the  use  of  educational  resources  be  understood. 
From  the  following  histories  some  idea  can  be  obtained  of  the 
inaccuracy  of  the  records  and  the  wandering  on  the  part  of 
individual  children:1 

Frank  D was  recorded  as  leaving  the  A School  Jan- 
uary 3  on  transfer  to  the  C School.  The  records  in  the 

C School  put  his  entrance  as  April  6,  apparently  after  sixty- 
four  days  of  school  were  missed.  He  stayed  six  days;  his  family 

moved  again  and,  on  April  17,  left  to  return  to  the  A School. 

He  seems  to  have  arrived  there  May  2,  missing  eleven  days. 

Charles  F was  transferred  from  the  B to  the 

K School,  September  4,  the  first  day  of  school.  There  is,  how- 
ever, no  record  of  his  entering  there  until  the  beginning  of  the  follow- 
ing school  year.  The  question  arises  whether  he  entered  without 
being  recorded — "slipped  in" — ,  whether  he  went  to  some  other 
school  and  not  the  one  to  which  the  transfer  was  made  out,  or 
whether  he  was  out  of  school  all  the  year.  The  second  is  probably 
the  case,  or  possibly  the  first,  but  we  lack  the  means  of  proof. 

Arthur  Z left  the  P for  the  S School,  Jan- 
uary 16;  there  is  no  record  of  his  entrance  in  the  S until  the 

following  September. 

An  interesting  case  was  that  of  Mary  L ,  aged  twelve, 

whom  a  nurse  brought  into  the  office  of  the  R School,  saying 

1  In  these  transfer  histories,  as  in  other  illustrative  cases,  letters  and 
names  are  used  which  conceal  the  identity  of  schools  and  children. 


THE  TRANSFER  SYSTEM  109 

that  the  girl  had  been  loafing  and  staying  at  home,  and  so  she  herself 
decided  to  bring  her  in.  When  Mary's  attendance  record  was 
looked  up,  it  was  found  that  on  September  5  she  was  living  on  Jack- 
son Boulevard  and  had  started  in  at  the  R School  in  the  third 

grade.  On  November  4  she  took  a  transfer  to  the  T School 

because  she  was  moving  to  Ogden  Avenue.  She  did  not  present  this 
transfer,  and  while  living  there  did  not,  according  to  her  own  story, 
attend  any  school.  In  January  her  mother  moved  again,  and  Mary 

re-entered  the  R School,  January  15.  Her  address  this  time 

was  Monroe  Street.  On  February  7  she  left  the  R School  and 

took  another  vacation,  because  her  mother  had  moved  again,  this 
time  to  Morgan  Street.  This  vacation  lasted  until  Mary  was  found 

at  home  by  the  nurse  and  brought  back  into  the  R School  in 

March. 

Austin  C was  transferred  from  the  A to  the  B 

School,  December  21.  There  is  no  record  there  of  his  entry,  but  he 
claims  that  he  was  in  attendance  there  and  the  principal  says  that 
he  may  have  slipped  in.  In  the  fall  of  the  following  year  he  was  once 
more  back  in  the  A School. 

William  R was  recorded  in  the  attendance  books  of  the 

I School  as  transferred  to  the  J School,  September  27. 

He  was  not  recorded  in  the  J School.  His  sister  in  the  I 

School  was  seen  and  said  that  he  went  to  the  J without  a  trans- 
fer on  March  n,  and  not  September  27,  as  in  the  attendance  books. 
If  this  were  the  case,  and,  since  records  in  the  attendance  books  were 
sometimes  all  the  material  available,  especially  when  not  of  the  cur- 
rent year,  it  might  be  that  some  other  children  in  a  similar  way  were 
counted  as  absent  for  a  more  or  less  considerable  period  when  they 
had  not  left  school. 

William  A —  came  from  the  I School  and  entered  the 

S School  in  September.  He  was  there  until  March  21,  when 

he  entered  a  third  school,  the  K School,  where  he  stayed 

from  March  22  to  May  n.  He  then  went  back  to  the  S 

School  where  he  was  registered  from  June  i  to  the  end  of  the  school 
year. 

Ethel  B left  the  S School  on  transfer  to  St. , 

a  parochial  school,  on  December  5.  There  was  no  record  of  her 


no     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

enrolment  there.  She  returned  to  the  S School  February  28. 

It  was  learned  that  the  child  was  often  kept  at  home  by  her  mother 
to  help,  and  that  the  case  had  been  referred  to  the  truant  officer. 

George  Y ,  eleven  years  old,  is  recorded  as  in  the  X 

School  from  the  opening  of  school  in  September  to  March  14,  when 

he  went  to  the  S School,  where  according  to  the  records  he 

remained  from  March  15  to  March  22.  But  he  was  also  on  the 

records  of  the  X School  from  March  27  to  April  14,  when  he 

is  marked  as  leaving  to  go  to  the  S School.  On  May  22,  he 

left  the  S School  without  a  transfer,  and  no  record  was  found 

of  his  attending  either  school  until  September  of  the  following  year, 

when  he  was  again  entered  at  the  X School.  If  the  S 

School,  as  is  probable,  omitted  to  record  an  actual  change  between 

March  15  and  March  22,  which  is  down  on  the  books  of  the  X 

School,  we  find  his  attendance  record  as  follows:  twenty-six  weeks 

from  September  to  March  14,  in  the  X School;  change  to  the 

S School,  with  no  time  lost;  nine  days  at  the  most  here; 

returned  to  the  X School,  where  he  stayed  not  more  than 

fourteen  days;  a  change  again  to  the  S School;  stayed  twenty- 
one  days  here  at  most  and  then  left  and  either  was  out  of  school  the 
remaining  twenty-four  days  or  changed  his  program  and  went  to  a 

third  school;  back  in  the  fall  at  the  X School,  where  he  started 

the  previous  year. 

Joseph  Z was  in  the  I School  September  10  to 

October  17,  when  he  left  on  transfer  to  the  J School.  There 

is  no  record  of  his  entering  there  until  September  of  the  following 
year.  On  September  15,  he  left  the  J School  without  a  trans- 
fer, and  the  principal  did  not  know  where  he  was. 

Agnes  M left  the  B School  for  the  A School 

in  March,  but  failed  to  enter  the  latter  school.  The  investigator 

heard  that  she  had  gone  to  the  E district  and  had  not  entered 

any  school,  although  she  would  not  be  fourteen  until  November. 
At  the  time  of  the  inquiry  she  was  at  work.  She  was  fourteen  then 
but  was  thought  to  have  begun  working  illegally  while  she  was 
under  age. 

Henry  W left  the  H School  for  the  A School 

March  15.  At  the  A School  he  is  recorded  as  having  entered 


THE  TRANSFER  SYSTEM  in 

from  the  M School  the  previous  October,  but  there  is  no  record 

of  his  arrival  from  the  H School,  from  which  he  was  trans- 
ferred. The  M School  has  no  obtainable  record  of  him. 

William  X is  recorded  as  entering  the  A School 

September  8,  but  there  is  no  record  showing  from  what  school  he 

came.  The  H School  records  him  as  leaving  there  March  15, 

and  the  M School  records  him  as  entering  May  15  and  leaving 

June  10,  but  does  not  say  for  what  school. 

Irene  Z left  the  L School  October  19,  entered  the 

K School  November  7,  and  left  the  K School  January 

10.  There  is  no  record  of  where  she  was  going.  Stanley  Z , 

her  brother,  entered  the  K School  October  18,  and  left 

according  to  the  records  on  December  28,  although  that  date  falls 
in  the  Christmas  vacation.  He  entered  a  parochial  school,  the 
St. ,  on  January  19. 

These  cases  are  cited  as  interesting  ones  for  purposes  of 
illustration.  Of  many  children  about  whom  inquiry  was  made 
the  principal  would  supplement  the  records  by  saying,  "He 
entered  on  such  a  day  and  stayed  only  a  little  while,"  or,  "He  was 
here  only  three  weeks."  In  spite  of  much  persistent  effort  some 
children  were  not  traced  at  all  and  others  had  such  doubtful  or 
conflicting  records  as  to  be  of  small  value  except  to  show  the  con- 
fusion that  occurs.  For  example,  a  child  might  be  found  regis- 
tered in  three  schools  simultaneously  and  changing  his  attendance 
from  one  to  another  to  escape  the  truant  officer,  or  a  child  might 
be  marked  absent  on  the  records  of  one  school  while  he  was  in  fact 
attending  another.  These  illustrations  serve  to  show  not  only 
the  time  lost  but  something  of  the  waste  in  frequent  transfers, 
with  the  inevitable  changes  in  teachers  and  methods.  These 
cases  show,  too,  how  imperfectly  the  records  are  kept  in  many 
schools  both  as  to  children  arriving  and  children  leaving,  since 
it  is  impossible  in  some  cases  to  trace  the  complete  history  of  a 
child  through  one  school  year  in  the  various  schools  to  which  he 
goes;  and  they  show  further  how  easily  under  the  present  trans- 
fer system  a  child  may  slip  wholly  out  of  sight. 


112     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Studies  made  of  the  records  of  9  schools,  led  our  investi- 
gators to  90  other  schools,  giving  a  view  of  the  records  of  99 
of  the  elementary  schools  of  Chicago.  There  is  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  the  conditions  in  the  schools  that  were  not  visited 
differed  essentially  from  those  prevailing  in  the  schools  in  which 
the  records  were  examined,  except  for  the  fact  that  transfers  are 
probably  more  numerous  in  the  poorer  sections  of  the  city 
where  the  parents  move  more  frequently. 

Transfers  should  probably  be  made  out  in  triplicate  instead 
of  hi  duplicate,  one  slip  for  the  child,  one  for  the  principal's  file, 
and  one  to  be  mailed  to  the  central  offices  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation. A  transfer  clerk  in  the  central  offices  could  then  mail 
a  reply  card  to  the  principal  of  the  new  school  and  if  the  child 
had  failed  to  make  a  report  at  the  new  school,  investigation 
could  be  begun  at  once.  If  the  ideal  of  the  compulsory  edu- 
cation law  is  that  a  child  is  to  attend  100  per  cent  of  the  school 
sessions  and  that  every  day  is  too  valuable  to  be  lost,  then 
some  system  should  be  worked  out  which  will  eliminate  every 
possibility  of  an  avoidable  absence.  There  is  no  intention  here 
of  insisting  on  any  particular  method  of  transfer-making  or 
record-keeping;  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  rather  to  insist 
that  some  system  be  devised  and  enforced  with  thoroughness 
and  zeal. 

Just  what  the  significance  of  these  long  absences  may  be  is 
difficult  to  estimate.  Attention  has  already  been  called  to  the 
fact  that  for  these  children  their  school  life  is  their  only  chance 
for  education,  for  quickening  their  interest,  for  preparing  them 
for  life  in  a  modern  industrial  and  social  democracy.  If  they 
have  all  that  the  law  contemplates  for  them — seven  or  nine 
years  of  regular  school-life — they  are  still  young  and  untrained 
persons,  poorly  equipped  to  assume  the  burdens  that  await 
them.  When  they  miss  even  a  few  days  of  school,  the  loss  is 
real;  when  the  loss  amounts  to  weeks,  it  becomes  serious  and 
means  not  only  loss  of  time  and  of  opportunity  which  can  never 


THE  TRANSFER  SYSTEM 

be  made  good  to  the  child,  but  irregularity,  uncertainty,  and 
impaired  efficiency  in  the  schoolroom  which  the  child  is  allowed 
to  enter  and  to  leave  in  this  casual  manner. 

Surely  a  system  can  be  worked  out  which  shall  see  every 
child  from  the  old  to  the  new  school  without  loss  of  time.  No 
transfer  should  be  issued  until  the  teacher  knows  the  child's 
new  address  and  the  new  school  can  be  correctly  designated 
in  the  transfer  slip.  If  the  new  address  cannot  be  learned  from 
the  child,  an  inquiry  might  be  made  by  the  truant  officer  at  the 
home  before  the  child  has  lost  any  schooling,  rather  than  after 
absences  have  occurred. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

A  DETAILED  STUDY  OF  THE  EXTENT  OF  NON-ATTENDANCE 
IN  TWO  SELECTED  SCHOOLS 

Statistics  relating  to  non-attendance  are  of  little  value 
unless  accompanied  by  an  inquiry  into  the  causes  of  absence.  In 
such  an  inquiry  non-attendance  should  be  investigated  at  the 
source ;  that  is,  by  a  careful  inquiry  made  in  the  home  in  order  to 
determine  how  far  the  causes  may  be  removable  and  the  result- 
ing absences  preventable. 

Since  it  was  impossible  to  make  a  detailed  investigation  of 
non-attendance  hi  all  the  nine  schools  in  which  the  attendance 
records  were  analyzed,  two  schools  were  selected  for  more 
intensive  study,  one  on  the  West  Side,  predominantly  Italian, 
but  with  Jewish  children,  and  one  on  the  Northwest  Side,  pre- 
dominantly Polish.  In  each  of  these  two  schools  after  the 
study  of  attendance  records  had  been  completed,  an  attempt 
was  made  to  visit  the  home  of  every  child  who  was  absent  during 
a  period  of  three  weeks.  The  investigation  was  made  in  the 
West  Side  school  in  December  and  in  the  Northwest  Side  school 
in  February,  two  whiter  months  when  the  percentage  of  non- 
attendance  runs  high.1  Table  VI,  which  follows,  shows  the 
total  enrolment  hi  the  two  schools  during  these  three  weeks 
and  the  total  number  of  children  of  different  ages  who  were 
absent  during  this  tune. 

1  The  schools  will  be  referred  to  as  the  "West  Side"  and  "North  Side" 
schools.  The  investigation  in  the  first  school  was  carried  on  for  the  three 
weeks  preceding  the  Christmas  holidays  (fifteen  school  days).  The  investi- 
gation in  the  second  school  was  carried  on  during  three  weeks  in  February. 
During  these  three  weeks,  however,  there  were  two  school  holidays,  Febru- 
ary 12  and  February  22,  so  that  the  investigation  actually  included  only 
thirteen  school  days. 

114 


A  DETAILED  STUDY  OF  NON-ATTENDANCE       115 


TABLE  VI 

TOTAL   ENROLMENT   AND   NUMBER   OF   CHILDREN   IN   DIFFERENT   AGE 

GROUPS  "ABSENT"  AND  "NOT  ABSENT"  FROM  Two  SELECTED 

ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS  DURING  THREE  WEEKS'  INQUIRY 


Under  Seven 

Seven  to 
Fourteen 

Fourteen  and 
Over 

Total 

Absent: 
Number  

2^0 

I.OQI; 

112 

T.(1(i6 

Percentage  

52 

44 

50 

45 

Not  absent: 
Number  

217 

1,417 

112 

1,746 

Percentage     

48 

56 

50 

55 

Total  

4.56 

2,<;i2 

224 

•?,IO2 

This  table  shows  that  out  of  3,192  children  enrolled  in  these 
two  schools  1,446,  or  45  per  cent,  were  absent  at  least  one  half- 
day  during  the  three  weeks,  period  of  investigation.1  Looking 
at  the  division  into  age  groups,  it  appears  that  the  children  of 
compulsory  school  age  were  less  irregular  in  attendance  than 
the  children  below  and  above  the  compulsory  age  limits;  thus 
only  44  per  cent  of  the  children  between  seven  and  fourteen 
years  of  age  were  absent  in  contrast  with  52  per  cent  of  the 
children  under  seven  and  50  per  cent  of  the  children  fourteen 
years  of  age  and  over. 

Although  an  attempt  was  made  to  have  all  the  absent 
children  visited  by  the  investigators,  it  was  unfortunately  not 
possible  in  either  school  to  devise  a  system  by  which  this  could 
be  accomplished.  Home  schedules  were  finally  obtained  for 
only  1,158  out  of  the  1,446  children  shown  by  the  teachers' 
attendance  books  to  have  been  absent  one  or  more  times  during 
the  period  of  the  investigation.  This  failure  to  visit  the  home 

1  The  percentages  of  absence  for  girls  and  boys  were  almost  precisely 
the  same,  and  it  did  not  seem  worth  while  therefore  to  present  the  data  for 
boys  and  girls  separately. 


Ii6     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

of  each  child  who  was  absent  was  due  in  part  to  the  fact  that 
the  investigators  were  not  able  to  secure  the  names  and  the 
addresses  of  all  the  absent  children,1  but  in  some  cases  in  which 
the  name  and  the  address  were  obtained,  the  investigator  in 
spite  of  repeated  visits  failed  to  find  any  member  of  the  family 
at  home;  in  other  cases  the  death  or  illness  of  someone  in  the 
household  made  a  visit  unwise.  For  example,  the  prevalence 
of  diphtheria  in  one  neighborhood  made  it  impossible  to  visit 
a  number  of  children  there. 

The  tables  that  have  already  been  given  merely  show  the 
number  of  children  absent,  but  not  the  number  of  times 
individual  children  were  absent.  The  following  tables  show 
the  extent  of  non-attendance  among  the  1,158  children  whose 
absences  were  investigated  by  visits  to  their  homes.  These 
tables,  however,  cover  a  longer  period  than  the  three  weeks 
of  home  visiting;  for  the  school  records  were  available  show- 
ing the  number  of  days'  absence  since  the  beginning  of 
the  session,  and  the  schedule  used  provided  for  the  child's 
school  attendance  from  the  beginning  of  the  school  year 
down  to  the  last  day  of  the  investigation.  The  table  for  the 
West  Side  school  therefore  covers  four  months,  from  the  first 
Tuesday  in  September  until  the  Christmas  holidays.  The 
table  for  the  North  Side  school  covers  a  period  of  six  months, 
from  the  first  Tuesday  in  September  to  the  last  week  in  Feb- 
ruary. 

Since  the  investigation  of  these  schools  was  made  during 
different  months,  December  and  February,  the  number  of 

1  An  attempt  was  made  to  have  the  different  teachers  send  to  the  prin- 
cipal's office  the  names  of  the  children  who  were  absent  each  session.  But 
although  the  great  majority  of  teachers  faithfully  co-operated  by  sending 
in  their  lists  regularly,  a  few  teachers  in  each  school  were  either  careless  or 
indifferent  at  times  and  failed  to  send  in  their  reports.  The  investigators 
in  the  office  assumed  that  no  children  were  absent  in  the  rooms  from  which 
no  lists  were  sent,  but  it  developed  later  that  this  was  not  always  the 
case. 


A  DETAILED  STUDY  OF  NON-ATTENDANCE       117 

absences  would,  of  course,  be  greater  in  the  second  school. 
The  table  that  gives  the  number  of  half-days  the  children  were 
absent  is  followed  by  a  series  of  cumulative  numbers  and  per- 
centages that  makes  it  possible  to  discuss  the  tables  more  con- 
veniently. In  the  West  Side  school,  during  sixteen  weeks, 
6  per  cent  of  the  816  absent  children  whose  homes  were  visited 
were  absent  forty  half-days  or  more;  that  is,  they  lost  the 
equivalent  of  four  weeks  or  more  than  four  weeks  of  school, 
which  was  one-fourth  of  the  time  school  had  been  in  session; 
12  per  cent  of  the  children  were  absent  thirty  half-days  or  more, 
that  is,  they  lost  three  weeks  or  more;  and  56  per  cent  lost 
at  least  two  weeks.  In  the  North  Side  school,  where  the 
records  covered  twenty-four  weeks,  6  per  cent  of  the  342 
children  visited  lost  sixty  half-days  or  more,  which  in  this 
school  was  likewise  equivalent  to  one-fourth  of  the  time 
school  had  been  in  session;  n  per  cent  lost  the  equivalent 
of  five  weeks'  schooling;  18  per  cent  lost  the  equivalent  of 
one  month;  29  per  cent  of  the  children  lost  the  equivalent 
of  three  weeks'  schooling;  and  50  per  cent  lost  two  weeks 
or  more. 

The  question  of  whether  or  not  girls  are  more  irregular  in 
attendance  than  boys  is  an  interesting  one.  It  has  already 
been  pointed  out  that  in  both  schools  the  percentage  of  girls 
who  were  absent  during  the  period  of  investigation  was  approxi- 
mately the  same  as  the  percentage  of  boys  who  were  absent 
during  the  same  period,  but  Table  VII  shows  that  the  girls  were 
absent  a  larger  number  of  half-days  than  were  the  boys.  That 
is,  in  the  West  Side  school  21  per  cent  of  the  girls  and  only  16 
per  cent  of  the  boys  were  absent  twenty-five  or  more  half-days; 
33  per  cent  of  the  girls  and  26  per  cent  of  the  boys  were  absent 
twenty  half-days  or  more;  in  the  North  Side  school  24  per  cent 
of  the  girls  and  only  14  per  cent  of  the  boys  were  absent  forty 
half-days  or  more;  34  per  cent  of  the  girls  and  only  25  per  cent 
of  the  boys  were  absent  thirty  half-days  and  more.  The  reason 


Ii8     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


for  this  greater  degree  of  absence  among  the  girls  will  be  dis- 
cussed in  the  chapter  dealing  with  the  causes  of  absence. 

TABLE  VH 

NUMBER  OF  BOYS  AND  GIRLS  ABSENT  SPECIFIED  NUMBER  OF  HALF-DAYS 


NUMBER  OF  HALF-DAYS  ABSENT 

WEST  SIDE  SCHOOL 
(Period  of  Sixteen  Weeks) 

NORTH  SIDE  SCHOOL 
(Period  of  Twenty-four 
Weeks) 

Boys 

Girls 

Both 

Boys 

Girls 

Both 

i  and  less  than    5  

I°5 
82 
46 
76 
40 
21 
24 
II 

5 
6 

76 

95 
50 

47 
48 

35 

22 

9 

10 

8 

181 
177 
96 
123 
88 
56 
46 

20 
15 
14 

19 
36 
32 
25 

24 

22 
23 
13 

5 

12 

7 

21 
15 

16 
16 
ii 
14 

12 
10 

9 

26 
57 
47 
41 
40 

33 
37 
25 
IS 

21 

5  and  less  than  10  

10  and  less  than  15  

15  and  less  than  20  

20  and  less  than  25  

25  and  less  than  30  

30  and  less  than  40  

40  and  less  than  50  

50  and  less  than  60  

60  and  over  

Total  

416 

400 

816 

211 

131 

342 

TABLE  VII  A 
CUMULATIVE  PERCENTAGES 


NUMBER  OF  HALF-DAYS  ABSENT 

WEST  SIDE  SCHOOL 
(Period  of  Sixteen  Weeks) 

NORTH  SIDE  SCHOOL 
(Period  of  Twenty-four 
Weeks) 

Boys 

Girls 

Both 

Boys 

Girls 

Both 

60  or  more  

I 
3 
5 
ii 
16 
26 
44 
55 
75 
25 

2 

5 
7 

12 
21 

33 
45 
57 

81 

19 

2 

4 
6 

12 

18 
29 
44 
56 
78 

22 

6 
8 
14 

25 

36 

47 
59 
74 
9i 

9 

7 
15 
24 
34 
43 
55 
67 
79 
95 
5 

6 
ii 
18 
29 
38 
So 
62 
76 
92 
8 

50  or  more  

40  or  more  

30  or  more  

25  or  more  

20  or  more  

1  5  or  more  

10  or  more  

5  or  more  

Less  than  5  

A  DETAILED  STUDY  OF  NON-ATTENDANCE       119 


It  is,  of  course,  important  to  know  whether,  when  a  child 
was  absent  several  half-days,  the  absences  were  consecutive 
or  irregular.1  The  long  absence  of  several  consecutive  half- 
days  is  usually  due  to  illness,  whereas  the  irregular  absences — 
the  occasional  half-day  or  day  of  non-attendance — are  much 
more  likely  to  be  unnecessary,  founded  on  some  trivial  excuse. 

1  Since,  in  general,  irregularity  is  determined  by  the  number  of  different 
periods  the  child  is  absent,  it  was  decided  to  call  those  absences  that  occurred 
at  three  or  more  different  times  "irregular,"  and  those  that  occurred  at 
only  one  or  two  different  periods  "consecutive."  This  gave  a  definite 
basis  of  classification,  but  it  was  not  entirely  free  from  objections.  The 
absences  of  some  children  were  called  consecutive  merely  because  they  were 
absent  less  than  three  times;  some  were  called  irregular  that  may  have  been 
a  series  of  consecutive  absences,  that  is,  some  of  the  children  who  were 
absent  at  three  different  periods  may  have  been  absent  on  each  occasion 
for  a  number  of  consecutive  days,  but,  although  any  one  absence  would 
have  been  properly  called  "consecutive,"  the  series  of  absences  falls  cor- 
rectly into  the  "irregular"  class.  In  general,  it  is  believed  that  the  method 
of  classification  adopted  tends  to  underestimate  the  factor  of  irregularity, 
The  following  table  presents  the  results  of  a  classification  on  this  basis. 

IRREGULARITY    OF    ABSENCES    OF  CHILDREN  IN 
TWO  SELECTED  SCHOOLS 


ABSENCES 

WEST  SIDE  SCHOOL 
(Period  of  16  Weeks) 

NORTH  SIDE  SCHOOL 
(Period  of  34  Weeks) 

Number 

Percentage 

Number 

Percentage 

Consecutive  .  . 
Irregular  

313 

604 

26 

74 

37 
3iS 

8 
93 

Total  

816 

100 

343 

100 

This  table  shows  that,  even  with  a  very  liberal  standard  of  what  may 
be  called  consecutive  absences,  a  very  small  proportion  belong  in  this 
group.  In  one  school  74  per  cent  of  the  children  and  in  the  other  92  per 
cent  of  the  children  were  absent  at  irregular  intervals.  Irregularity  accord- 
ing to  the  method  of  classification  adopted  would  increase  with  the  period 
for  which  the  statistics  were  gathered  and  is  naturally  greater  in  the  school 
from  which  records  were  obtained  for  six  months  than  in  the  school  from 
which  only  four  months'  records  were  obtained. 


120     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

It  is,  however,  difficult  to  classify  the  absences  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  children  on  this  basis  because  the  same  child  may  belong 
in  both  the  irregular  and  consecutive  groups;  that  is,  he  may 
be  absent  for  two  weeks  on  account  of  illness  and  he  may  be 
absent  one  half-day  each  week  for  trivial  reasons  during  the 
rest  of  the  term.  In  general,  however,  it  seemed  to  be  true 
that  the  absences  of  most  of  the  children  were  not  the  consecu- 
tive absences  due  to  illness,  but  the  irregular  absences  which 
indicate  casual  and  unnecessary  non-attendance. 

A  few  other  general  questions  relating  to  these  non-attending 
or  absent  children  should  be  answered  before  the  causes  of  non- 
attendance  are  discussed.  No  study  of  truancy,  non-attendance 
and  the  causes  of  absences  can  be  of  value  without  a  clear  under- 
standing of  family  and  neighborhood  conditions.  The  first  of 
the  two  schools  studied  is  located  in  the  heart  of  the  West  Side 
of  Chicago  in  a  ward  that  contained  91  people  per  acre  at  a  time 
when  the  average  population  in  the  city  as  a  whole  was  20 
people  per  acre;  the  second  was  in  an  almost  equally  crowded 
neighborhood  with  82  people  per  acre.  This  overcrowding  is, 
however,  to  be  found  in  all  the  river  wards,  the  wards  of  the 
lower  West  Side,  lower  North  Side,  and  the  Southwest  Side  in 
which  the  majority  of  the  children  of  Chicago  live.1 

'See  an  article,  "The  Housing  Problem  in  Chicago,"  No.  IV,  by 
E.  Abbott  and  S.  P.  Breckinridge,  in  the  American  Journal  of  Sociology, 
XVII,  2  ff.,  for  the  following  data  regarding  the  overcrowding  in  different 
Chicago  wards.  The  federal  census  population  statistics  for  1910  "showed 
that  in  the  city  as  a  whole  the  average  population  per  acre  was  19.7. 
The  Ninth  and  Tenth  wards,  which  include  the  'Ghetto'  and  the  poor 
district  about  the  lumber  yards  and  canals,  have  a  density  of  70  and  80.8 
per  acre;  the  Nineteenth  Ward,  the  crowded  immigrant  section  in  which 
Hull-House  is  situated,  has  90.7  per  acre;  the  Seventeenth  Ward,  a 
similarly  poor  and  crowded  tenement-house  district,  has  a  density  of  97.4; 
and  the  Sixteenth  Ward,  a  Polish  neighborhood,  has  a  population  averaging 
81 . 5  per  acre.  It  appears  that  the  six  most  densely  populated  wards  which 
have  more  than  70  people  per  acre  are  all  on  the  West  Side.  Altogether 
in  eighteen  wards  in  different  parts  of  the  city  the  average  number  of  people 
was  forty  or  more  per  acre." 


A  DETAILED  STUDY  OF  NON-ATTENDANCE      121 


The  two  school  neighborhoods  studied  were  both  immigrant 
neighborhoods,  the  one  predominantly  Italian  and  the  other 
Polish.  A  very  considerable  number  of  children  visited  had 
themselves  been  born  abroad,  and  the  parents  belonged  almost 
entirely  to  the  immigrant  group.  In  Table  VIII  the  place  of 
birth  of  the  head  of  the  family  is  given — that  of  the  father,  if 
alive,  and  of  the  mother,  if  the  father  was  dead. 

TABLE  VIII 

NATIVITY  OF  PARENTS  OF  NON-ATTENDING  CHILDREN 
A.    West  Side  School 


Place  of  Birth 

Number 

Percentage 

Italy   

no 

63 

Russia  

I'M 

18 

Germany  

27 

3 

Ireland  

27 

3 

Other  foreign  countries  .  .  . 
United  States  

48 

CI 

6 

7 

Total*  

807 

IOO 

B.    North  Side  School 


Place  of  Birth 

Number 

Percentage 

Poland   

1  80 

61 

Germany       

4A 

Austria-Hungary  

2S 

8 

Russia  

2C 

8 

Other  foreign  countries.  .  . 
United  States  

5 

21 

2 
•J 

Total*  

•?io 

IOO 

*Nine  cases  on  the  West  side  and  thirty-two  on  the  North 
Side  are  omitted  from  the  total  because  the  place  of  birth  of  the 
parents  was  not  given. 

The  table  shows  that  both  in  the  West  Side  and  in  the 
North   Side   school  only  7  per  cent  of    the  parents  of  the 


122     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

non-attending  children  were  born  in  this  country.  The  West 
Side  school  neighborhood  is  a  homogeneous  one  with  63  per 
cent  of  the  parents  born  in  Italy;  in  the  North  Side  district 
6 1  per  cent  of  the  parents  were  Polish,  and  a  very  consider- 
able number  came  from  Russia  and  from  the  Slavic  provinces 
of  Austria. 

In  the  second  of  these  neighborhoods  so  large  a  proportion 
were  Polish  that  it  seemed  best  to  designate  Poland  as  if  it  were 
still  a  political  unit.  The  term  Poland  in  the  table,  therefore, 
covers  all  those  who  were  born  in  Russian  Poland,  German 
Poland  or  Austrian  Poland. 

From  whatever  country  they  come,  the  parents  of  these 
children  do  not  immediately  become  Americanized.  They  con- 
tinue to  be  Italian  or  Polish.  The  language  of  the  home  is 
Italian  or  Polish,1  and  it  is  not  English  but  these  other  languages 
that  one  hears  spoken  in  the  shops  and  on  the  streets  of  the  sur- 
rounding neighborhoods. 

Living  in  a  foreign  colony,  working  with  gangs  of  men  of 
their  own  nationality,  finding  it  easy  to  depend  on  the  children 
as  interpreters  in  emergencies,  the  parents  find  it  extremely 
difficult  to  learn  English  and  believe  it  to  be  quite  unnecessary. 
Thus  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  English  is  not  spoken  in 

1  The  following  table  shows  that  English  was  the  language  spoken  in 
less  than  one-fourth  of  the  homes  of  the  children  whose  absences  were 
investigated. 

Among  the  foreign  languages  were,  of  course,  Polish,  Italian,  Yiddish, 
Bohemian,  Slovak,  and  German. 


Language  of  Home 

Number 

Percentage 

Foreign     

767 

70 

English  

255 

23 

79 

7 

Total*     

1,101 

ZOO 

*In  57  cases  the  language  of  the  home  was  not  given. 


A  DETAILED  STUDY  OF  NON-ATTENDANCE       123 


the  home  because  the  parents,  especially  the  mothers,  have 
never  learned  to  speak  it  with  ease,  if  at  all.1 

The  importance  of  this  factor  in  the  compulsory  education 
situation  cannot  be  overestimated.  Coming  from  the  most 
impoverished  countries  of  Europe,  where  free  education  is 
unknown,  the  parents  do  not  easily  understand  that  school 
attendance  is  not  only  free  but  compulsory  and  that  "compul- 
sory attendance"  means  "regular  attendance."  It  is  easy  for 
these  parents  to  make  sacrifices  for  the  children  to  go  to  school, 
but  not  easy  to  grasp  all  at  once  the  American  standard  of 
education,  which  means  regular  attendance  for  at  least  seven 
years,  no  matter  how  soon  the  elementary  arts  of  reading  and 
writing  may  be  acquired. 

In  an  attempt  to  understand  the  social  background  from 
which  these  non-attending  children  come,  two  other  questions 
of  importance  arise;  the  first  is  the  question  of  poverty  in  the 
home,  and  the  second  the  question  of  how  far  non-attendance 
is  caused  by  the  fact  that  the  mothers  of  these  children 
are  widows  obliged  to  support  their  children  by  working  away 
from  home.  In  order  to  formulate  some  definite  statement 
regarding  the  economic  status  of  these  families,  they  have  been 
classified  into  four  economic  groups,  which  may  be  described 
as  very  poor,  poor,  comfortable,  and  very  comfortable.  No 

1  The  following  table  shows  the  number  and  percentage  of  parents  who 
were  able  to  speak  English. 


ABILITY  TO  SPEAK 

FAT 

HER 

MOT 

HER 

ENGLISH 

Number 

Percentage 

Number 

Percentage 

Able  to  speak  Eng- 
lish 

SO2 

64 

472 

45 

Not  able       

334 

36 

587 

55 

Total* 

IOO 

1,059 

IOO 

*In  the  case  of  232  fathers  and  99  mothers  there  was  no 
report  as  to  ability  to  speak  English. 


124     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

families  that  could  be  called  wealthy  were  found  among  the 
absent  children  in  either  of  these  neighborhoods. 

The  investigators  who  visited  the  homes  could  not  in  a 
single  visit  obtain  sufficiently  accurate  information  regarding 
the  earnings  of  the  father  or  of  others  in  the  family  to  justify 
any  attempt  to  classify  these  families  on  the  basis  of  income. 
The  dividing  lines,  then,  between  the  economic  groups  were 
not  determined  by  family  earnings  but  by  the  standard  of 
living,  that  is,  by  facts  indicating  the  kind  of  house  and  the 
number  of  rooms  in  which  the  family  lived,  the  condition  of  the 
home  as  to  furnishings  and  cleanliness,  the  kind  of  work  done 
by  the  father,  and  particularly  by  the  fact  of  whether  or  not  the 
mother  had  been  obliged  to  become  a  supplementary  wage- 
earner.  That  is,  the  information  in  the  investigator's  schedule 
did  make  it  possible  to  say  whether  or  not  the  family  were  living 
under  conditions  of  poverty.  We  are  concerned  therefore  in 
this  classification  merely  with  the  home  circumstances,  and 
a  family  living  in  wretched  conditions  in  a  miserable  home  was 
called  "poor"  or  "very  poor"  even  if  the  wife  said  that  her 
husband  was  at  work  at  fairly  good  wages.  The  wages  may 
have  been  saved  or  dissipated  but,  in  either  case,  the  condition 
of  the  home  was  for  the  time  not  profiting  by  the  higher  income.1 

In  general,  the  families  called  "very  poor"  were  not  nor- 
mally self-sustaining  families,  and  many  of  them  were  supported 
in  part  by  some  charitable  organization.  The  families  deserted 
by  the  father  and  those  in  which  the  father  was  dead  or  was  an 
invalid  were  in  this  class.  In  other  cases  the  family  was  "very 
poor"  because  the  father  was  shiftless  or  drunken  and  kept  the 
family  impoverished  through  his  neglect.  On  the  other  hand, 

1  In  an  earlier  study  of  the  delinquent  wards  of  the  Juvenile  Court, 
when  we  were  confronted  by  a  similar  problem  of  classification,  a  similar 
method  was  used.  This  is  discussed  in  more  detail  in  the  chapter,  "The 
Poor  Child:  The  Problem  of  Poverty,"  in  The  Delinquent  Child  and  the 
Home,  by  S.  P.  Breckinridge  and  E.  Abbott. 


A  DETAILED  STUDY  OF  NON-ATTENDANCE      125 


the  families  called  "poor"  were  normally  self-sustaining;  but 
the  father,  although  able  to  keep  up  the  home  without  charity 
and  without  making  the  wife  and  mother  go  outside  of  the 
home  to  become  a  wage-earner,  did  so  with  great  difficulty. 
The  men  in  the  families  classified  as  poor  were  for  the  most  part 
unskilled  laborers  handicapped  by  their  inability  to  speak 
English  and  subject  to  the  largest  hazards  of  unemployment. 
These  families  live  under  great  pressure,  and  to  keep  the 
children  supplied  with  proper  shoes  and  clothing  for  school 
necessitates  a  constant  struggle.  The  families  classified  as 
"  comfortable "  are  those  of  artisans,  tailors,  or  small  shop- 
keepers who  live  in  cheerful  little  homes  and  who  are  well 
above  any  fear  of  want.  In  the  neighborhood  of  the  West 
Side  school  there  were  in  addition  a  few  families  who,  while  not 
at  all  wealthy,  were  considerably  above  the  general  standard 
of  living  in  the  neighborhood.  These  were  liquor-dealers, 
proprietors  of  good  stores  in  the  neighborhood  and,  in  a  few 
cases,  manufacturers.  In  general,  their  neighbors  spoke  of 
them  as  "fine"  or  "rich,"  and  it  seemed  worth  while  to  place 
them  in  a  separate  class,  which  might  best  be  described  as  "very 
comfortable."  One  of  these  families,  for  example,  kept  a 
servant.  Table  IX  shows  the  results  of  an  attempted  classi- 

TABLE  IX 

ECONOMIC  STATUS  OF  FAMILIES  OF  NON-ATTENDING 
CHILDREN 


Economic  Group 

Number 

Percentage 

Very  poor  

1C? 

14 

Poor  

724 

64 

Comfortable  

241 

21 

Very  comfortable  

ii 

I 

Total*  

I.I2O 

IOO 

*In  the  case  of  29  families  the  information  was  not  sufficient 
to  justify  their  classification  into  economic  groups. 


126     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


fication  on  the  basis  of  economic  status  as  indicated  by  the 
conditions  of  the  home. 

This  table  shows  that  78  per  cent  of  the  families  visited 
were  poor  or  very  poor;  that  21  per  cent  were  in  fairly  com- 
fortable circumstances,  while  a  very  few  families  (i  per  cent) 
could  be  called  very  comfortable. 

Passing  on  to  the  question  of  how  many  of  these  children 
belonged  to  widowed  or  deserted  mothers,  Table  X  shows  that 
the  great  majority  of  children  belong  to  normal  family  groups. 

TABLE  X 

PARENTAL  STATUS  OF  NON-ATTENDING  CHILDREN 


Children  Having  — 

Number 

Percentage 

Both  parents  living  

TO/M 

90 

Father  only  

41 

4 

Mother  only  

68 

6 

Neither  parent  

e 

* 

Total  

i.isS 

IOO 

*Percentage  less  than  i  per  cent 

This  table  indicates  that  4  per  cent  of  these  children  are 
motherless,  6  per  cent  come  from  fatherless  families,  and  90 
per  cent  come  from  families  in  which  both  parents  are  living. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that  regular  attendance 
at  school  is  difficult  for  the  children  who  are  fatherless  or 
motherless.  In  the  poor  home,  the  widowed  mother  who  has 
to  become  a  wage-earner  is  often  obliged  to  leave  her  children 
to  get  dressed  and  to  prepare  their  own  breakfast  and  to  be 
themselves  responsible  for  getting  to  school  on  time.  For  the 
children  who  are  actually  motherless,  there  is  the  same  difficulty. 
If  one  pictures  the  miserable  cold  rooms,  the  difficulties  of  dress- 
ing in  confusion  and  disorder,  the  lack  of  care  and  supervision, 
it  is  not  strange  that  many  of  these  children  are  irregular  at 
school.  In  this  connection  it  should  not  be  overlooked  that 


A  DETAILED  STUDY  OF  NON-ATTENDANCE       127 

in  these  neighborhoods  large  families  are  the  rule,  and,  to  the 
inconveniences  which  may  be  due  to  poverty  must  be  added 
the  difficulties  due  to  the  pressure  of  a  large  number  of  children 
in  the  small,  uncomfortable  rooms.  By  way  of  summary,  then, 
it  may  be  said  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  irregular  or  "casual" 
school  attendance  in  these  poor  and  crowded  neighborhoods. 
In  the  next  chapter  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  present  the 
immediate  causes  of  non-attendance.  The  evil  of  irregular 
attendance  can  be  cured  only  after  it  is  understood;  and  it  can 
be  understood  only  by  studying  it  at  the  source,  that  is,  in  the 
homes  which  are  so  largely  responsible  for  it. 


CHAPTER  IX 
NON-ATTENDANCE  AT  THE  SOURCE 

A  study  of  the  causes  of  absence  shows  that  truancy  and 
non-attendance  are  closely  related  to  the  neighborhood  condi- 
tions which  have  already  been  described.  In  these  immigrant 
neighborhoods  where  there  are  crowded  conditions  of  living, 
where  the  families  are  very  poor,  and  it  is  a  perpetual  struggle  to 
give  the  children  enough  to  eat  and  to  wear,  there  is  inevitably 
a  great  waste  of  the  children's  schooling  that  does  not  occur  in 
more  prosperous  sections  of  the  city.  Sickness  occurs  among 
the  children  that  could  be  avoided  if  better  care  were  possible; 
sickness  of  others  in  the  home,  and  other  family  exigencies  due 
to  poverty  impose  a  heavy  burden  of  care  upon  the  children, 
which  is  met  by  sacrificing  school  attendance.  Table  XI  shows 
the  reasons  given  in  the  home  either  by  the  mother  or  the 
guardian  of  the  child  for  the  non-attendance  of  the  1,158  absent 
boys  and  girls  visited  by  the  investigators. 

The  various  excuses  given  have  been  grouped  under  three 
heads:  (i)  absences  caused  by  sickness  and  family  emergencies, 
which  explain  the  majority  of  the  absences  of  the  whole  number 
of  non-attending  children;  (2)  absences  which  could  be  avoided 
by  a  little  better  care  and  a  little  more  trouble  on  the  part  of 
the  mother — keeping  the  children  at  home  to  run  errands,  to 
help  with  the  housework,  and  in  general  to  meet  the  convenience 
of  the  mother;  (3)  absences  due  to  truancy,  that  is,  cases  in 
which  the  mother  had  sent  the  child  to  school  and  did  not  know 
that  he  had  gone  elsewhere. 

The  great  majority  of  the  children  absent  on  account  of 
sickness  seemed  to  have  only  very  trivial  indispositions,  and 
a  very  small  number  of  children  were  found  in  bed.  In  a  con- 

128 


NON-ATTENDANCE  AT  THE  SOURCE 


129 


siderable  number  of  cases  where  the  mother  said  that  the  child 
was  sick,  the  investigator  felt  that  the  absence  was  due  rather 
to  carelessness  or  indifference;  for  example,  the  child  had  over- 
slept in  the  morning  or  the  mother  had  not  got  the  necessary 
clean  clothes  ready. 

TABLE  XI 

REASONS  GIVEN  FOR  THE  NON-ATTENDANCE  OF  1,158  BOYS  AND  GIRLS 
WHOSE  SCHOOL  ABSENCES  WERE  INVESTIGATED 


Be 

YS 

Gi 

*LS 

Bo 

TH 

REASONS  GIVEN  FOR  ABSENCE 

Number 

Percent- 
age 

Number 

Percent- 
age 

Number 

Percent- 
age 

Sickness  and  family  emergen- 
cies: 
Sickness  of  child  

280 

46 

268 

51 

W8 

48 

Sickness  of  others  

•2A 

6 

47 

8l 

7 

Birth,  death,  wedding,  etc.  . 
Church  attendance 

17 
I? 

3 

2 

16 
8 

3 

2 

33 

21 

3 

2 

Other  excuses: 
Work  at  home  

•tf 

9 

7C 

14 

131 

12 

Lack  of  shoes  or  clothes  .... 
Errands  and  interpreting  .  .  . 
Having  company  or  visiting 
Working  or  looking  for  work 
"Tardy   and   so   stayed   at 
home" 

46 
3i 
13 
ii 

23 

8 
5 

2 

2 

34 
ii 
10 
i 

21 

7 

2 

2 
* 

80 
42 
23 
12 

AA 

7 
4 

2 
I 

Excused  by  teachers 

A 

2 

* 

6 

* 

Inclement  weather  

6 

I 

C 

I 

II 

I 

Various  trivial  excuses  
Truancy: 
Mother    thought    child    at 
school  

29 
44. 

5 

7 

16 
8 

3 

2 

45 

C2 

4 

Totalf 

607 

100 

C22 

IOO 

I   I2O 

IOO 

*Less  than  i  per  cent. 

fin  29  cases,  20  boys  and  9  girls,  no  reason  was  given  for  the  absence. 

In  many  cases  the  child  was  ill  because  his  physical  needs 
had  not  been  properly  looked  after,  because  the  mother  was 
overworked  or  ignorant  or  perhaps  very  poor,  and  the  child 
had  therefore  not  been  taken  to  a  dentist  or  had  his  tonsils 


130     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

looked  after  or  been  given  some  other  necessary  preventive 
treatment.  Sometimes  the  child's  undernourished  condition  or 
lack  of  warm  clothing  and  of  shoes  that  would  keep  the  feet  dry 
had  made  him  susceptible  to  colds  and  other  illnesses.  The  fact 
that  approximately  one-fifth  of  all  the  children  enrolled  should 
within  three  weeks  be  absent  because  of  sickness  shows  an 
urgent  need  for  school  nurses  and  thorough  medical  inspection. 
It  may  be  noted  too  that  the  visits  made  by  a  school  nurse 
who  is  also  a  social  worker  not  only  protect  the  child  from 
unnecessary  absences  due  to  preventive  illnesses,  but  such 
visits  often  afford  an  excellent  opportunity  for  general  family 
service,  instruction  in  better  methods  of  housekeeping,  better 
care  of  all  the  children,  as  well  as  help  in  the  process  of  Ameri- 
canizing many  homes. 

One  little  boy  whose  absence  was  investigated  had  been  out 
of  school  sixty-two  half-days  during  the  twenty-four  school 
weeks.  He  was  found  at  home  sick,  lying  on  the  floor  by  the 
stove.  His  mother  was  away  working,  and  there  was  no  one 
to  look  after  this  child  or  the  three  smaller  children  who  were 
at  home.  Another  case  needing  the  care  of  a  school  nurse  was 
that  of  a  little  girl  whose  mother  was  keeping  her  at  home 
because  she  could  not  pay  $25  to  have  her  tonsils  out.  Her 
doctor  had  said  that  it  would  cost  that  much,  and  no  one 
had  told  her  of  a  free  dispensary  which  was  not  difficult  to 
reach.  Another  little  girl  was  kept  at  home  to  look  after  the 
children  while  her  mother  took  the  ten-year-old  brother,  who 
had  been  excluded  from  school,  to  the  doctor  for  treatment. 

With  the  children  who  are  sick,  must  be  classed  the  children 
who  are  excluded  because  of  a  disease  that  is  contagious, 
although  it  may  not  incapacitate  them.  Such  are  the  children 
with  scabies  and  ringworm,  the  deadly  trachoma,  or  "blight," 
and  the  less  serious  cases  of  unclean  heads.  These  diseases 
are  generally  due  to  filth  and  neglect,  and  the  children  afflicted 
with  them  usually  come  from  homes  of  the  lowest  grade. 


NON-ATTENDANCE  AT  THE  SOURCE  131 

Unless  treatment  is  vigorously  pushed,  the  ignorant  or  indiffer- 
ent mother  acquiesces  only  too  readily  in  the  exclusion  of  the 
children  from  school  and  makes  little  or  no  effort  to  get  them 
in  condition  to  return.  One  eleven-year-old  Polish  boy  who 
was  visited  by  an  investigator  in  February  had  been  excluded 
because  of  scabies  the  first  week  in  September.  He  re-entered 
school  in  January,  but  was  found  to  be  still  suffering  from  the 
disease.  He  had  been  told  by  the  nurse  that  he  must  go  regu- 
larly to  the  dispensary,  but  his  mother  had  made  no  effort 
to  have  him  go.  As  a  result  he  had  lost  a  whole  term  at  school 
and  had  every  prospect  of  losing  another.  In  this  case  the  boy 
belonged  to  a  very  low-grade  family  living  in  the  rear  of  a 
saloon.  His  mother  was  a  drinking  woman,  and  the  boy's 
sister  had  been  in  the  Juvenile  Court  as  a  delinquent.  The 
school  record  showed  that  the  twelve-year-old  boy  in  the 
family  had  also  lost  a  great  deal  of  time  at  school — forty-eight 
half-days  during  the  twelve  weeks  since  he  had  been  transferred 
from  a  parochial  school — but  the  mother  strongly  maintained 
that  he  was  still  in  the  parochial  school  and  that  the  public 
school  "had  nothing  to  do  with  him." 

The  Visiting  Nurses  Association,  the  Department  of  Com- 
pulsory Education,  the  United  Charities,  and  the  Juvenile 
Court  had  all  worked  with  this  family  without  success.  The 
United  Charities  had  finally  asked  to  have  the  children  removed 
from  the  home,  but  the  Juvenile  Court  had  refused  to  grant  the 
petition. 

Inquiries  made  at  the  United  Charities  offices  revealed  the 
fact  that  it  was  not  difficult  to  find  other  similar  cases  of  children 
wholly  excluded  from  school.  One  district  office  of  the  Chari- 
ties reported,  for  example,  the  following  interesting  case.  In 
a  family  in  which  the  father  was  suffering  from  tuberculosis 
there  were  five  children;  the  eldest,  a  little  girl  ten  years  old, 
had  tubercular  glands  and  trachoma;  a  little  girl  of  seven  had 
tubercular  glands;  a  younger  child  in  the  family  had  trouble 


132     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

with  his  eyes;  and  the  two  other  children  were  also  tubercular. 
The  family  was  originally  reported  to  the  Charities  by  a  com- 
petent school  nurse  because  the  father  was  ill,  but  the  report 
was  made  in  January,  a  month  when  relief  societies  are  very 
busy,  and,  although  the  office  visitor  gave  attention  to  the  man, 
got  him  to  a  tuberculosis  sanitarium,  and  gave  assistance  to  the 
family  in  his  absence,  it  was  not  until  the  following  summer 
that  the  physical  condition  of  the  other  members  of  the  family 
was  looked  into.  At  that  time  when  the  woman  asked  that  the 
children  be  given  a  country  holiday,  a  physical  examination 
was  necessary,  and  it  was  then  learned  for  the  first  time  that 

Mrs.  S and  some  of  the  children  had  trachoma  and 

could  not  therefore  be  sent  to  the  country.  According  to  the 
case  record,  however,  it  was  not  until  the  following  November 
that  an  effort  was  made  to  secure  treatment  for  any  of  the 
children. 

In  January  of  the  next  year  a  nurse  again  reported  the 
family  to  the  district  office  and  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  children  in  the  family  had  trachoma.  It  was  not  until 
March,  however,  when  all  the  children  seemed  to  be  infected 
with  this  terrible  disease  that  the  society  made  any  persistent 
efforts  to  see  that  the  children  had  proper  treatment.  Even 
then  it  was  June,  fully  a  year  and  a  half  after  the  first  report, 
before  the  children  were  taken  to  the  Eye  and  Ear  Hospital 
and  Dispensary.  At  that  tune  the  doctor  at  the  hospital 
thought  that  the  little  girls  should  be  isolated,  but  the 
mother  refused  to  allow  them  to  be  placed  in  the  hospital,  and 
there  ensued  a  long  struggle  for  proper  care  and  treatment. 
The  officers  of  the  Health  Department,  the  Juvenile  Court,  and 
the  Municipal  Court  were  evidently  appealed  to  in  the  hope 
that  the  mother  could  be  coerced  into  permitting  the  necessary 
care  and  medical  treatment  for  the  children.  As  a  result 
finally  of  semi-weekly  visits  by  a  visiting  nurse,  the  district 
office  was  notified  in  the  following  February  that  the  mother 


NON-ATTENDANCE  AT  THE  SOURCE  133 

was  ready  to  take  up  the  matter  of  getting  a  certificate  that 
would  entitle  the  children  to  go  to  school.  This,  however, 
was  never  followed  up.  On  March  4,  a  United  Charities  visitor 
who  went  to  the  home  reported,  "Children  not  in  school  yet." 
On  March  12,  when  the  visitor  was  there  again,  she  found  that 
the  children  were  still  out  of  school.  On  May  10  the  visitor 
reported  that  the  children  again  had  very  sore  eyes,  that  the 
mother  was  out,  and  that  Mamie,  the  eldest  child,  was  taking 
care  of  the  house  and  the  children.  On  June  10  the  record 
shows  that  the  nurse  was  once  more  coming  twice  a  week  to 
dress  the  children's  eyes.  At  this  time  the  family  was  turned 
over  to  the  Pension  Department  of  the  Juvenile  Court,  and  on 
October  8  it  was  reported  that  the  children's  eyes  were  much 
better  and  that  the  two  little  girls  were  in  school.  A  report 
from  the  school  on  December  4  of  the  same  year  was  as  follows: 
"Teachers  of  both  girls  say  that  they  are  frequently  absent. 
They  were  both  out  of  school  a  whole  day  recently  to  say  good- 
bye to  relatives  leaving  for  Italy.  They  are  both  very  slow 
in  their  work  and  large  for  their  grades.  Mamie  (now  twelve 
years  old)  is  in  the  third  grade.  Both  children  are  well  be- 
haved." They  had  both  lost  two  years  and  a  half  of  schooling. 
Family  emergencies  of  all  sorts,  too,  fall  heavily  upon  the 
children  in  these  poor  homes,  and  many  of  them  are  absent 
a  considerable  number  of  days  every  year  because  of  the  illness 
of  some  other  member  of  the  family.  Cases  of  chronic  illness 
are  the  most  serious,  and  a  child  is  sometimes  made  to  lose  an 
entire  year's  schooling  because  there  is  no  one  else  to  care  for 
a  sick  mother  or  father  during  a  long  illness.  For  example, 
two  little  Polish  boys,  Stanley,  aged  twelve,  and  Matthew, 
aged  ten,  were  being  kept  at  home  alternately  to  care  for  a 
mother  who  was  ill  with  tuberculosis.  The  family  had  never 
had  either  a  doctor  or  a  nurse,  although  the  father  was  a  skilled 
workman  earning  good  wages  and  two  older  sisters  were  both 
working.  The  home  was  terribly  neglected,  and  the  little  boys 


134     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

were  delicate  and  anemic.  In  this  case  it  would  probably 
have  been  wise  for  one  of  the  sisters  to  give  up  working  and 
take  care  of  the  mother  and  the  home.  It  was  surely  no  kind- 
ness to  the  family  to  allow  them  to  deprive  the  two  little  boys 
of  education  and  health  and  at  the  same  time  to  allow  the  home 
to  be  shockingly  neglected. 

A  little  Polish  girl,  ten  years  old  and  in  the  second  grade, 
who  had  been  absent  fifty-six  half-days  within  six  months,  was 
found  at  home  in  a  rear  basement  apartment  of  two  rooms, 
taking  care  of  her  mother,  who  was  lying  on  a  mattress  in  the 
kitchen.  The  mother  explained  that  the  visiting  nurse  and 
the  county  doctor  both  came  to  see  her  and  a  policeman  had 
brought  a  basket.  It  was  learned  that  the  family  had  been 
deserted  by  the  father,  and  the  mother  was  usually  able  to 
support  herself  and  the  child  by  washing;  but  when  she  was  ill 
she  was  compelled  to  keep  the  child  at  home  to  care  for  her. 
The  child  had  already  been  out  of  school  five  weeks.  The 
attention  of  the  United  Charities  was  called  to  this  home  in  the 
hope  that  the  mother  could  be  persuaded  to  go  to  a  hospital 
until  she  was  entirely  well  again,  and  that  the  child  might  be 
properly  provided  for  until  the  mother's  return. 

In  a  much  larger  number  of  cases,  however,  the  children 
were  kept  at  home  to  relieve  a  sudden  pressure  caused  by  an 
unexpected  illness.  One  boy  was  kept  to  watch  fires  for  a  sick 
father  while  his  mother  "got  a  day's  work";  another  had  stayed 
at  home  because  his  sister's  baby  was  in  convulsions  and  his 
mother  had  not  been  able  to  get  him  ready  to  go  to  school; 
John  was  staying  at  home  because  his  mother  had  gone  to  see 
a  doctor  and  wanted  him  to  look  after  the  children,  who  did 
not  like  to  go  to  the  day  nursery;  Bruno,  aged  twelve,  was 
found  at  home  helping  his  mother  wash,  but  he  explained  that 
he  had  really  stayed  out  to  go  "to  tell  the  boss"  that  his  father 
was  sick;  Genevieve,  aged  twelve,  who  had  been  absent  four- 
teen half-days  and  tardy  twice  during  the  month  when  the 


NON-ATTENDANCE  AT  THE  SOURCE  135 

investigator  called,  was  found  alternately  tending  the  shop  and 
taking  care  of  three  younger  children  and  of  a  sick  mother, 
although  her  father  was  well  able  to  hire  someone  to  come  in 
to  help  care  for  the  family  while  the  little  girl  was  at  school. 

A  few  children,  3  per  cent  of  the  whole  number,  were  absent 
because  of  a  death  in  the  family,  or,  in  a  small  number  of  espe- 
cially pathetic  cases,  because  of  the  birth  of  a  new  baby,  at 
which  the  little  girl  was  obliged  to  officiate  as  midwife  and  nurse. 
In  one  family  Helen,  aged  eleven,  was  not  only  taking  care  of 
her  sick  mother  and  of  the  new  baby  who  had  arrived  the  night 
before,  but  of  six  other  children  younger  than  herself.  The 
mother  explained  that  the  child  had  had  no  sleep  the  night 
before  and  was  not  fit  to  go  to  school  in  any  case.  The  father, 
who  was  at  home,  was  a  chronic  invalid,  and  the  mother  begged 
to  be  allowed  to  keep  the  child  at  home  for  a  week  or  two  because 
she  needed  her  "to  go  to  the  Charities"  and  to  do  errands. 
Later  when  she  was  told  that  a  visiting  nurse  would  help  with 
the  baby  and  that  "the  Charities"  had  promised  to  send  some- 
one to  help  while  the  little  girl  was  away,  she  was  glad  to  have 
the  child  go  back  to  school.  In  another  family,  a  little  girl,  not 
quite  eight  years  old,  was  being  kept  at  home  to  help  her 
mother  in  a  similar  emergency.  And  in  still  another  case,  Mary 
reported  that  she  was  taking  care  of  the  children  while  her 
mother  was  helping  a  neighbor  woman  who  was  "getting  a 
baby";  had  the  mother  made  an  effort,  another  neighbor  could 
undoubtedly  have  been  found  who  would  have  helped  with  the 
children  and  prevented  the  interruption  of  Mary's  schooling. 

No  one  wishes  to  judge  these  poor  people  for  yielding  to  the 
hard  pressure  of  circumstances,  but  it  is  clearly  wrong  that  in 
such  cases  the  heaviest  costs  should  be  paid  by  the  child,  when 
a  resourceful  visitor  could  suggest  better  ways  of  tiding  over 
the  emergency  than  depriving  the  child  of  his  only  chance  of 
education  and  frequently  at  the  same  time  overtaxing  his 
physical  strength.  Many  of  the  parents  are  newly  arrived 


136     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

immigrants,  helpless  in  other  ways,  as  well  as  poor,  and  it  is  no 
kindness  to  them  to  acquiesce  in  a  hand-to-mouth  plan  which 
means  sacrificing  the  child's  future,  when  it  is  possible  to  devise 
better  methods  of  meeting  the  immediate  need  by  calling  in  a 
visiting  nurse  or  by  soliciting  the  friendly  assistance  of  a  kindly 
neighbor. 

Because  of  the  many  hardships  of  life  encountered  by  these 
poor  families,  one  is  tempted  to  excuse  the  cases  of  absence  due 
to  wedding  festivities.  A  wedding  is,  in  these  neighborhoods, 
a  great  family  festival  in  which  children  are  expected  to  share. 
Nevertheless,  it  seemed  hard  that  one  more  reason  for  irregular 
attendance  should  be  added  to  those  already  existing.  The 
absence  of  a  little  girl  who  was  taking  care  of  the  baby  while  her 
mother  was  getting  the  older  sister  ready  to  be  married,  and 
absence  of  a  little  boy  who  had  not  been  able  to  get  up  in  time 
to  go  to  school  because  he  had  been  "helping  at  a  wedding" 
until  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  were  examples  of  children 
whose  schooling  suffered  as  a  result  of  the  family  festivity. 

No  study  of  the  causes  of  non-attendance  in  the  immigrant 
sections  of  the  city  can  fail  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  poverty 
is  only  too  frequently  the  real  excuse  for  non-attendance.  In 
many  cases  where  the  father  is  a  decent,  industrious  workman 
in  regular  work,  but  with  a  large  family  and  small  wages,  it  is 
impossible  in  the  winter  to  "get  ahead."  The  week's  earnings 
barely  provide  for  the  week's  regular  expenses  of  rent,  fuel,  and 
food,  and  there  is  never  any  leeway,  never,  for  example,  any 
ready  savings  for  the  next  pair  of  shoes.  It  is  astonishing  how 
important  the  shoe  problem  is  as  a  factor  in  non-attendance. 
Too  often,  if  shoes  go  to  pieces  during  the  week,  new  ones 
cannot  be  bought  before  the  next  pay  day  and  the  child  must 
stay  at  home  until  then.  And  the  new  shoes  are  not  bought 
until  the  old  ones  are  literally  in  pieces.  Roman,  aged  thirteen, 
and  only  in  the  fourth  grade,  was  found  at  home  wearing  old 
arctics  of  his  father.  His  mother  explained  that  his  father  and 


NON-ATTENDANCE  AT  THE  SOURCE  137 

the  older  boys  had  just  "got  jobs"  and  would  get  their  first 
"pays"  next  week,  when  Roman  would  have  shoes  and  be 
returned  to  school.  In  the  case  of  another  little  boy  found 
patiently  sitting  shoeless  by  the  fire,  it  was  explained  that 
"Father  gets  paid  this  evening  and  will  buy  shoes  for  Stanley 
on  the  way  home."  Edward,  who  was  also  found  at  home,  had 
worn  his  old  shoes  until  they  had  made  blisters  on  his  feet, 
and  today  they  had  no  money,  and  so  he  had  to  wait  until 
tomorrow,  when  his  father  would  "get  him  shoes  out  of  his  pay 
and  send  him  back  to  school."  Thomas  was  not  at  home 
because  he  had  stayed  out  of  school  to  get  his  shoes  mended, 
and  his  mother  explained  that  as  he  sold  papers  after  school  and 
in  the  evening,  there  was  no  other  time  for  the  mending  to  be 
done.  In  another  family  Mary  was  at  home  because  she  had 
torn  her  shoe  the  night  before,  and  since  she  had  no  other  her 
mother  had  to  take  it  out  to  be  mended  before  she  could  go 
out  again. 

In  addition  to  the  families  that  are  really  independent  and 
able  to  provide  shoes  at  least  on  pay  day,  there  are  many 
cases  in  which  the  family  cannot  provide  shoes  at  all  because 
there  is  no  pay  day  in  sight,  and  help  must  be  asked  of  public 
or  private  charity  before  the  child  can  return  to  school.  John, 
who  was  nearly  twelve  years  old  and  in  the  second  grade  and 
who  had  been  absent  forty  half-days  irregularly  in  six  months, 
was  found  at  home  in  a  room  that  contained  no  furniture  except 
a  cracked  stove  and  two  old  chairs;  the  boy  explained  that  his 
mother  was  out  washing  and  that  his  father  sometimes  "worked 
on  boats,"  that  the  county  agent  was  coming  to  see  whether 
they  needed  help  or  not  and  he  had  to  be  home  to  explain  or 
interpret,  for  he  was  the  only  English-speaking  member  of  the 
family;  moreover  his  shoes  were  all  gone  so  that  he  could  not 
go  back  to  school  anyway.  He  showed  a  touching  confidence 
that  he  would  get  shoes  from  the  county  agent  the  first  thing 
the  next  morning,  and  would  come  late  to  school. 


138     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Another  eleven-year-old  boy,  from  the  first  grade,  who  was 
found  at  home,  complained  that  he  needed  shoes  and  clothes 
and  that  he  also  had  to  "carry  pants"  and  run  errands  while 
his  mother  sewed.  The  father  was  dead,  and  the  family  of  six 
were  living  in  a  small  three-room  basement  apartment;  the 
mother  was  a  home  finisher,  "sewing  pants"  in  a  dark  room 
lighted  by  a  small  kerosene  lamp.  In  the  same  room  was  a  little 
girl  of  nine,  barefooted,  who  had  been  out  of  school  over  three 
months  and  who  not  only  had  no  shoes  or  stockings  but  who 
had  only  a  thin  summer  dress.  The  woman  said  that  she  would 
like  to  have  the  children  in  school  but  that  she  could  not  earn 
enough  to  buy  clothes  or  shoes.  Later,  however,  when  proper 
clothing  had  been  furnished,  she  did  not  send  them  to  school, 
but  insisted  that  Michael  had  to  "carry"  from  the  tailor's. 
She  was  so  absorbed  in  getting  enough  money  to  pay  the  rent 
and  to  buy  food  that  school  seemed  unimportant  in  contrast. 

This  family  had  never  been  helped  by  a  private  charitable 
organization  but  had  had  county  outdoor  relief.  The  visitor 
from  the  county  agent's  office  seemed,  however,  to  have  made 
no  effort  to  improve  the  deplorable  conditions  in  the  home  or  to 
get  the  children  to  school.  Two  other  cases  illustrated  the 
same  indifference  toward  the  children's  school  attendance  on 
the  part  of  the  public  relief  agency.  Joseph,  nearly  thirteen 
and  in  the  fifth  grade,  was  found  at  home,  waiting  for  coal  to 
be  delivered.  His  mother  showed  a  county  coal  ticket  and 
explained  that  the  county  coal  was  always  left  on  the  sidewalk, 
and  unless  she  kept  Joseph  at  home  to  carry  it  in,  it  would  be 
all  gone.  In  another  household,  Frank,  aged  ten  and  in  the 
third  grade,  who  had  been  absent  for  two  days,  was  found  at 
home  scrubbing  the  floor.  His  mother  anxiously  explained 
that  the  county  agent  had  promised  to  send  coal  and  Frank 
would  have  to  stay  at  home  until  it  came  because  there 
was  no  one  else  to  carry  it  up.  She  had  had  a  hemorrhage 
recently  in  a  tailor  shop  and  was  afraid  to  lift  anything  heavy. 


NON-ATTENDANCE  AT  THE  SOURCE  139 

It  may,  of  course,  be  suggested  that  the  "widow's  pension" 
law1  should  prevent  such  hardships,  but  the  fact  must  not  be 
overlooked  that  what  is  really  needed  is  some  machinery  for 
putting  such  families  in  touch  with  agencies  that  are  available. 
That  is,  what  seems  to  be  most  needed  is  a  mobilization  of  the  so- 
cial resources  which  are  waiting  to  serve  in  just  such  cases  of  need. 

There  are  a  few  families  in  which  the  pressure  in  the  home  is 
so  great  that  the  mother  finds  herself  unable  to  resist  the  temp- 
tation to  keep  the  children  at  home  quite  regularly  for  a  day  or 
a  half-day's  help.  But  in  the  majority  of  such  cases,  the  work 
could  be  rearranged  so  that  the  child's  schooling  need  not  be 
sacrificed.  To  help  these  poor  people  to  make  a  hard  life  a  little 
easier  by  depriving  their  children  of  the  few  educational  oppor- 
tunities open  to  them  is  merely  prolonging  their  misery;  for 
if  the  child  loses  his  schooling,  conditions  in  the  home  will  not 
be  improved  when  he,  in  his  turn,  becomes  an  incompetent 
man.  In  one  home,  where  the  man  was  out  of  work  and  was 
reported  to  be  unwilling  to  work,  the  mother  went  out  to  wash 
and  kept  three  little  girls  alternately  out  of  school  to  "keep  the 
home."  In  this  case,  the  woman  was  defiant  and  said  that 
she  had  a  right  to  keep  her  children  home  while  she  was  earning 
something  for  them  to  eat  and  to  wear.  In  another  home 
Mary,  aged  eleven  and  a  half  and  only  in  the  second  grade, 
was  being  kept  at  home  regularly  one  day  a  week.  The  father 
worked  nights,  and  the  mother  said  that  she  "had  to  have" 
Mary  at  home  when  she  washed  so  that  the  baby  could  be 
kept  quiet  and  the  father  given  a  chance  to  sleep.  Her  washing 
was  very  small  and  could  have  been  done  after  school  or  even 
on  Saturday  without  serious  inconvenience,  but  so  long  as  she 
was  allowed  to  do  so,  she  preferred  the  easier  way  of  keeping 
Mary  out  of  school.  A  little  thirteen-year-old  girl  in  another 
family  had  been  kept  at  home  every  Tuesday  or  Wednesday, 

'Technically  called  in  Illinois  the  "Funds  to  Parents"  law,  enacted 
June,  1911. 


140     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

sometimes  both  days,  since  she  had  been  in  the  school.  The 
mother  insisted  that  she  could  not  pay  anyone  to  help  wash 
although  the  father  and  three  older  children  all  had  steady 
work. 

It  is  not  always  the  little  girl  who  is  kept  at  home  to  help. 
Charles,  who  lacked  one  month  of  being  fourteen  and  who  was 
only  hi  the  third  grade,  had  been  absent  twenty-nine  of  the 
forty  school  days  since  he  left  the  parochial  and  entered  the 
public  school.  The  mother  said  that  she  was  not  able  to  do 
heavy  work  and  "needed  a  child  home,  off  and  on."  The 
father  and  the  two  older  children  were  working,  and  the  home 
was  comfortable  and  well  furnished,  with  rugs  and  a  piano;  but 
the  mother  insisted  that  they  had  no  money  to  spare  and  counted 
off  the  days  on  the  calendar  until  the  boy  would  be  fourteen 
and  could  be  put  to  work.  Surely  it  is  the  duty  of  the  state  to 
protect  boys  like  Charles,  and  not  to  let  them  be  deprived  of 
what  is  really  their  American  birthright  because  the  parents 
are  too  ignorant  to  appreciate  its  value. 

A  little  German  boy  who  had  been  very  irregular  in  attend- 
ance was  found  selling  papers  on  the  street.  His  mother  was 
surprised  to  learn  that  he  "must  always  go  to  school  when 
there  was  school,"  as  she  expressed  it.  She  said  that  she  always 
sent  him  to  school  in  the  mornings,  but  that  he  sometimes  got 
papers  to  sell  in  the  afternoon,  an  arrangement  which  she 
thought  indicated  an  altogether  admirable  thrift. 

In  another  home  a  little  twelve-year-old  girl  was  found  at 
home  scrubbing  the  floor  and  crying;  she  said  at  first  that  her 
mother  kept  her  from  school  because  she  had  no  dress  to  wear. 
When  she  was  told  that  the  dress  she  had  on  was  quite  good 
enough,  it  was  discovered  that  she  was  really  at  home  to  take 
care  of  a  little  brother  while  her  mother  went  on  an  errand. 
Another  little  girl  had  been  absent  thirty-four  separate  half- 
days  in  six  months,  and  the  constant  excuse  was  that  she  had  to 
go  to  her  aunt's  to  help  her  take  care  of  the  children. 


NON-ATTENDANCE  AT  THE  SOURCE  141 

In  a  few  cases  the  mother  complained  that  she  had  no  time 
to  get  the  children  clean  enough  to  go  to  school.  One  woman, 
the  mother  of  eight  children,  said  that  Mike  had  no  clean 
blouse,  and  added  forcibly,  and  no  doubt  with  much  truth,  that 
when  she  had  to  go  out  and  wash  for  other  people  she  had  no 
time  to  wash  for  her  own  children.  Joseph,  who  had  been 
absent  forty-nine  half-days  in  six  months,  said  that  he  had  no 
clean  clothes,  a  statement  of  obvious  fact.  His  mother  was 
away  at  a  neighbor's,  but  he  said  she  would  wash  his  sweater 
some  time  during  the  day  and  clean  him  up  so  that  he  could  go 
to  school  the  next  day.  A  little  girl  in  the  same  neighborhood, 
who  was  absent,  had  a  similar  excuse.  Her  dress  had  to  be 
washed,  she  said,  and  she  had  only  one.  The  possibility  of 
washing  a  dress  at  night  does  not  occur  to  these  mothers  so  long 
as  they  have  the  more  convenient  alternative  of  keeping  the 
child  at  home  the  next  day.  If  the  compulsory  education  law 
were  rigidly  enforced,  however,  other  ways  would  be  devised 
of  meeting  the  numerous  emergencies  that  under  present  condi- 
tions seem  to  necessitate  keeping  the  child  out  of  school. 

Many  of  the  excuses  now  given  are  extremely  trivial.  One 
boy,  aged  thirteen,  whose  father  kept  a  clothing  store,  was 
allowed  to  stay  at  home  to  see  new  windows  put  up  in  front  of 
their  shop;  another  boy  was  found  hauling  a  clock  across  the 
street  and  explained  that  he  had  to  help  a  neighbor  move; 
another  was  staying  at  home  to  "help  move"  an  aunt;  still 
another  was  packing  the  few  family  belongings  that  they  might 
be  ready  to  move  later  when  his  mother  came  home;  another 
boy  who  was  found  at  home  said  that  he  was  staying  out  to  help 
care  for  a  sick  horse.  More  serious  were  the  number  of  absences 
caused  by  the  mother's  morbid  curiosity,  which  led  her  to  go  to 
the  services  for  some  young  Polish  men  who  had  been  hanged  for 
murder.  Several  children  were  found  at  home  that  day  taking 
care  of  the  smaller  children  while  the  mother  went  to  the 
funerals. 


142     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

A  number  of  absences  were  due  wholly  to  carelessness. 
Chester  was  found  at  home  scrubbing  the  floor,  and  explained 
that  he  had  overslept;  Sam,  who  was  found  studying  in  his 
father's  store,  was  very  much  ashamed  to  be  caught  and 
explained  that  he  had  fallen  asleep  at  his  sister's  the  night 
before  and  did  not  get  back  in  the  morning  in  time  for  school; 
Frank  claimed  that  he  was  staying  home  to  take  care  of  the 
three  small  children  while  his  mother  worked  in  the  saloon, 
but  the  mother  said  that  he  did  not  need  to  look  after  the 
children,  and  that  he  was  out  of  school  because  he  had  slept 
too  late.  One  mother  said  that  she  hated  to  have  Nathan, 
aged  thirteen,  get  up  so  early  when  he  stayed  up  so  late,  but 
seemed  not  to  have  thought  of  the  alternative  of  getting  him 
to  bed  earlier.  One  woman,  thoroughly  defiant,  would  give 
no  excuse  except  to  say,  "When  he  has  to  stay  home,  he  has  to." 

In  one  very  prosperous  family  in  which  there  were  four 
children  at  work,  a  little  thirteen-year-old  boy,  who  was  in  the 
fifth  grade  had  been  kept  at  home  on  Monday  and  Tuesday  of 
nine  successive  weeks  to  help  with  the  washing.  When  the 
compulsory  education  law  was  carefully  explained  to  the  mother, 
she  agreed  with  the  investigator  that  she  might  hire  someone 
to  help  wash.  When  it  was  suggested  that  they  were  sufficiently 
prosperous  to  keep  the  boy  in  school  until  he  graduated  from 
the  eighth  grade,  she  seemed  greatly  surprised  to  know  that 
'children  were  allowed  to  stay  in  school  after  they  were  four- 
teen; her  other  children,  she  said,  had  all  left  the  parochial 
school  when  they  were  confirmed,  and  she  had  never  understood 
that  children  could  go  to  school  when  they  were  old  enough  to 
work.  In  another  sufficiently  well-to-do  family  the  washer- 
woman had  failed  to  appear,  and  instead  of  postponing  the 
washing  the  little  thirteen-year-old  boy  was  kept  at  home  to 
do  it. 

In  many  cases  the  child  is  kept  at  home  because  it  is  con- 
venient to  have  an  interpreter.  For  example,  Tony,  aged 


NON-ATTENDANCE  AT  THE  SOURCE  143 

twelve,  was  staying  at  home  to  interpret  when  the  plumber 
arrived;  Stanley,  aged  thirteen,  had  to  take  his  mother  to  court 
and  to  act  as  a  witness;  John  explained  that  his  father's  "  trial" 
was  on  and  he  had  to  see  that  his  mother,  who  spoke  no  English, 
got  safely  to  court  and  back  again;  Frank,  aged  thirteen,  had 
to  go  with  his  aunt  and  interpret  for  her  until  she  "got  a  job"; 
Peter,  aged  twelve,  who  was  out  helping  his  mother  hunt 
rooms,  explained  the  next  day  that  she  did  not  like  to  go  alone 
because  she  could  not  speak  English,  and  since  the  older  children 
were  at  work  he  was  the  only  one  who  could  go  with  her;  that 
is,  it  was  more  convenient  to  keep  Peter  at  home  than  to  hunt 
rooms  in  the  evenings  or  on  Saturday. 

While  visiting  the  homes  of  more  than  1,100  absent  children, 
it  was  inevitable  that  some  should  be  found  living  in  such 
unwholesome  and  degraded  homes  that  regular  school  attend- 
ance could  scarcely  be  expected.  It  was  discovered,  for 
example,  that  one  little  boy  who  had  been  absent  thirty-nine 
half-days  in  less  than  six  months  was  being  sent  to  pick  up  coal 
near  the  tracks,  although  the  family  were  reputed  to  be  pros- 
perous and  were  buying  their  house.  In  spite  of  their  good 
income,  the  shiftlessness  of  the  mother  had  demoralized  the 
home;  she  seemed  to  be  a  very  lazy  woman  who  did  not  usually 
get  up  until  noon;  when  the  investigator  called,  the  kitchen 
was  full  of  men  who  were  sitting  about  while  the  mother  was 
still  in  bed  in  the  same  room. 

Another  little  boy  in  the  same  neighborhood  had  not 
entered  school  until  the  second  week  in  October  and  had  been 
absent  fifty-seven  half-days  in  the  five  months  following.  The 
visitor  found  the  home,  the  three  children,  and  the  mother  all 
in  a  filthy  condition;  the  little  boy  claimed  that  he  had  no 
clean  waist  and  that  his  earlier  absences  had  been  due  to  a  lack 
of  shoes;  it  was  discovered,  however,  that  he  had  been  "bum- 
ming around  the  nickel  shows  on  the  avenue,"  and  that  he  was 
suspected  of  stealing.  One  of  the  other  children  at  home  was 


144     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

a  little  girl,  eleven  years  old,  who  was  supposed  to  be  attending 
a  parochial  school,  but  who  claimed,  no  doubt  erroneously, 
that  the  Sisters  let  her  stay  at  home  to  help  her  mother. 

One  eleven-year-old  boy  absent  from  the  third  grade  was 
found  on  the  street  selling  "extras."  This  boy  was  one  of  six 
children  belonging  to  a  family  well  known  in  the  neighborhood 
because  the  father,  who  was  constantly  in  and  out  of  jail, 
abused  the  children  and  quarreled  with  the  mother  when  he 
was  at  home.  All  the  children  had  been  irregular  or  truant  at 
school,  and  the  mother,  who  was  at  first  very  indifferent  about 
them  and  their  schooling,  had  become  alarmed  because  they 
were  "getting  to  be  bums  and  thieves  like  their  father,"  and 
had  willingly  given  her  consent  to  the  commitment  of  the  eldest 
boy  to  the  Parental  School. 

In  another  confused  and  miserable  home,  the  mother,  who 
drank  and  used  vile  language,  seemed  to  be  the  source  of 
degradation.  The  little  boy,  aged  twelve,  who  had  been 
absent  forty-five  half-days  irregularly  within  six  months,  was 
one  of  eleven  children,  all  of  whom  were  exposed  to  degrading 
and  contaminating  influences.  The  children  were  not  only 
frequently  absent  from  school,  but  were  reported  to  be  unruly 
and  a  source  of  demoralization  when  present. 

Other  similarly  wretched  cases  were  found.  A  ten-year- 
old  girl  in  the  first  grade,  who  had  been  absent  forty-seven 
half-days  during  six  months,  was  visited  on  the  occasion  of  three 
different  absences  during  the  three  weeks  that  our  investi- 
gators were  at  work  in  the  neighborhood.  One  day  the  mother 
said  that  the  child  had  overslept,  on  another  day  that  she  had 
gone  to  visit  an  aunt  in  another  part  of  town,  and  on  the  third 
day,  that  the  father,  who  was  obviously  drunk,  had  sold  the 
child's  shoes  and  that  the  principal  would  not  give  her  another 
pair.  Another  little  girl,  nearly  fourteen  years  old,  who  was 
in  the  third  grade  and  who  had  been  absent  sixty-two  half-days 
during  six  months,  was  found  at  home  taking  care  of  her  mother. 


NON-ATTENDANCE  AT  THE  SOURCE  145 

The  father  had  deserted  the  family  of  five  children  after  beating 
the  mother  so  severely  that  she  was  in  need  of  medical  care. 

In  a  still  more  wretched  household  the  whole  family,  includ- 
ing all  the  six  children,  were  still  in  bed  when  the  investigator 
called.  The  house  was  dirty  and  unspeakably  disorderly, 
with  eight  boarders  in  addition  to  the  family  of  eight  in  six 
rooms.  Later,  stolen  goods  were  found  in  the  house  and  the 
family  was  evicted,  but  a  newspaper  story  brought  in  a  supply 
of  funds. 

In  such  extreme  cases  as  these  the  children  are  really 
"dependent  or  neglected"  within  the  meaning  of  the  Juvenile 
Court  law,  and  they  are,  in  the  language  of  the  statute,  ''with- 
out proper  parental  care."  A  warning  from  the  Department 
of  Compulsory  Education  cannot  possibly  bring  about  the 
necessary  improvement  in  the  children's  school  attendance. 
All  the  conditions  of  family  life  need  to  be  changed,  and  noth- 
ing short  of  thoroughgoing  family  rehabilitation  will  bring  the 
home  up  to  the  level  of  co-operation  with  the  school.  Drunk- 
enness on  the  part  of  either  parent,  crime  and  immorality, 
cases  of  wife  desertion,  and  filthy  conditions  of  living  should 
be  reported  to  the  proper  corrective  agencies  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment. 

We  have  pointed  out  elsewhere  that  the  great  difficulty  con- 
nected with  the  treatment  of  girls  who  are  brought  into  court 
as  delinquent1  is  the  fact  that  the  young  girl's  waywardness 
and  the  conditions  of  degradation  so  often  responsible  for  her 
bad  conduct  are  not  discovered  until  too  late;  cases  like  those 
cited  indicate  the  importance  of  a  better  enforcement  of  the 
compulsory  school  law  and  of  requiring  absolutely  regular 
attendance.  If  the  absences  of  the  children  in  these  cases  were 
followed  up  at  once,  the  evil  conditions  in  the  home  could  be 
referred  to  the  proper  authorities  for  treatment  so  that  the 

1  The  Delinquent  Child  and  the  Home,  chap,  vi,  "The  Child  from  the 
Degraded  Home:  The  Problem  of  Degeneracy,"  p.  105. 


146     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

child's  right  to  her  minimum  of  education  might  be  enforced  and 
her  statutory  right  to  "proper  parental  care"  be  made  good  to  her. 

It  was  an  interesting  result  of  these  1,100  visits  that  very 
few  cases  of  wilful  truancy  were  discovered.  Less  than  2  per 
cent  of  the  girls  and  only  7  per  cent  of  the  boys  were  out  of 
school  without  the  consent  of  their  parents.  In  these  cases  the 
investigator  reported  that  the  mother  was  usually  very  indig- 
nant to  learn  that  the  child,  who  had  been  sent  to  school,  had 
not  arrived.  One  mother  was  surprised  to  find  that  her  thirteen- 
year-old  boy  was  not  in  school,  and  still  more  surprised  to  find 
that  he  had  been  absent,  at  different  times  during  the  six  months, 
eight  whole  days  and  seventeen  half-days.  She  was  very  anxious 
to  be  notified  when  he  was  absent  and  begged  that  the  visitor 
would  try  to  "scare  him." 

One  boy  who  was  found  at  home  claimed  to  be  sick;  he  had 
started  from  home  to  go  to  school  but  went  to  a  fire  instead. 
His  mother  said  that  he  "just  took  sick"  after  he  got  home. 
Another  boy,  Aloysius,  aged  eight,  absent  eleven  half-days 
irregularly  between  January  i  and  February  5,  was  not  found 
at  home,  and  an  angry  mother  who  had  sent  him  to  school 
threatened  to  "see  about  it,"  and  said,  "He'll  be  there  this 
afternoon  all  right."  In  another  family,  John,  aged  twelve 
and  in  the  fifth  grade,  and  Leo,  aged  eleven  and  in  the  third 
grade,  could  not  be  found.  They  were  two  of  six  children  whose 
father  was  dead  and  whose  mother  worked  out  by  the  day. 
During  six  months  one  of  them  had  been  absent  twenty-two 
half-days  and  tardy  eight  times;  the  other  was  absent  fifteen 
half-days  and  tardy  twice.  A  sister  who  was  at  the  home  said 
that  they  often  played  truant  and  were  probably  "bumming," 
that  their  mother  wanted  them  to  go  to  school,  but  she  was 
away  all  day  working  and  had  no  way  of  knowing  whether  they 
went  or  not.  It  is,  of  course,  in  such  cases  as  these  that  the 
resources  of  the  Parental  School  are  likely  to  prove  entirely 
adequate. 


NON-ATTENDANCE  AT  THE  SOURCE  147 

This  chapter  was  entitled  "Non- Attendance  at  the  Source" 
since  it  is  only  too  clear  that  it  is  the  home  and  the  parents,  not 
the  child  and  the  school,  that  must  be  dealt  with  if  the  school 
attendance  is  to  be  rigidly  enforced  to  the  100  per  cent  standard. 
In  the  vast  majority  of  cases  it  was  found  that  the  children 
were  absent  with  their  parents'  consent  or  at  their  parents' 
command.  It  is  useless  to  talk  about  the  waywardness  of  the 
child  or  the  shortcomings  of  the  schools  or  the  teachers  while 
this  is  so.  In  one  home  the  investigator,  supposed  to  be  a 
truant  officer,  was  received  with  enthusiasm  by  the  absent  boy 
who  called  out  to  his  mother,  "I  told  you  they'd  catch  you  if 
you  kept  me  home!"  The  mother,  a  good-natured  Italian 
woman,  was  much  impressed  by  the  visitor's  prompt  appearance, 
and  marveled  that  Tony's  absence  could  be  so  promptly  dis- 
covered in  a  school  with  a  thousand  children.  In  another  home 
the  boy,  who  was  washing  and  did  not  like  his  job,  explained 
with  satisfaction,  "I  told  her  there  was  eight  new  officers  at 
our  school  and  somebody  would  give  it  to  her."  That  our 
investigation  had  a  tonic  effect  on  school  attendance  in  both 
neighborhoods  was  generally  agreed.  Persistent  and  careful 
and  prompt  inquiry  after  each  absent  child,  whether  suspected 
of  truancy  or  not,  must,  even  if  continued  for  a  short  time  only, 
be  beneficial  because  of  its  effect  on  parents  and  children  alike. 
Only  in  this  way  can  the  causes  of  non-attendance  be  discovered. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  HABITUAL  TRUANT  AND  THE  SCHOOLROOM 
INCORRIGIBLE 

Careful  inquiry,  then,  seems  to  indicate  that  truancy,  which 
may  be  denned  as  wilful  absence  on  the  part  of  the  child  without 
the  knowledge  and  consent  of  the  parent,  is  a  relatively  unim- 
portant factor  in  non-attendance.  The  table  given  in  the  last 
chapter  shows  that  only  5  per  cent  of  the  1,129  non-attending 
children  who  were  visited  were  truants,  that  is,  children  whose 
mothers  had  sent  them  to  school  and  did  not  know  of  their 
failure  to  attend.  Moreover,  the  problem  of  wilful  truancy  is 
almost  exclusively  a  boy  problem.  Nine- tenths  of  the  truants 
in  one  school  and  all  the  truants  in  the  second  school  were  boys. 
The  official  machinery  provided  by  the  Board  of  Education  for 
the  enforcement  of  the  compulsory  education  law  is  devised 
to  prevent  non-attendance  from  any  cause  and  not  merely 
non-attendance  caused  by  truancy.  Although  the  agents  of 
this  department  are  called  truant  officers,  they  are  sent  to 
investigate  any  case  of  absence  in  which  the  principal  suspects 
that  the  children  either  are  needlessly  being  kept  out  of  school 
or  are  wilfully  staying  away.  The  machinery  as  developed  up 
to  the  present  time  is,  however,  better  fitted  to  secure  the 
return  of  the  children  than  to  remove  the  causes  of  their  failure 
to  attend.  When  these  causes  are  stubborn,  the  law  assumes 
that  the  child's  continued  non-attendance  indicates  a  defiance 
of  the  law,  either  on  the  part  of  the  parent  who  continues  to 
keep  the  child  at  home  in  spite  of  warning  notices,  or  on  the 
part  of  the  child  who  still  runs  away  even  after  the  truant  officer 
has  tried  to  bring  him  back. 

148 


THE  HABITUAL  TRUANT  149 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  the  law  provides  for 
a  prosecution  of  the  defiant  parent  in  the  Municipal  Court  and 
the  commitment  of  the  habitually  truant  child  to  the  Parental 
School  through  the  Juvenile  Court.1  The  theory  of  the  law  is 
that  if  the  child  will  not  go  to  school  with  the  other  children  in 
his  neighborhood  he  must  be  sent  to  a  special  school  from 
which  he  cannot  get  away.  Such  children  usually  come  from 
homes  in  which  there  is  a  breakdown  of  family  discipline,  and 
for  this  reason  the  discipline  of  the  Parental  School  is  substi- 
tuted for  the  lack  of  control  over  the  children  in  their  own  home. 
Obviously  a  breakdown  of  family  discipline  may  manifest  itself 
in  relation  to  the  school  in  more  than  one  way.  One  child  may, 
because  of  lack  of  home  training,  refuse  to  go  to  school  at  all, 
or  may  stay  away  so  often  as  to  make  it  impossible  for  him  to 
benefit  by  the  training  when  he  is  there.  Another  child,  equally 
undisciplined  and  lawless,  may  go  to  school  with  fair  regularity, 
but  behave  so  badly  that  the  school  is  of  no  benefit  either  to 
him  or  to  the  other  children  in  the  room.  Such  a  child  is  said 
to  be  "guilty"  of  persistent  violation  of  the  rules  of  the  school; 
and  the  law  provides  that  those  who  are  wilfully  absent,  and 
those  who  are  wilfully  disobedient,  and  those  who  seem  to  be  in 
need  of  constant  oversight  shall  alike  be  eligible  to  the  Parental 
School,  to  which  they  may  be  committed  by  the  Juvenile 
Court  on  the  initiative  of  the  Department  of  Compulsory 
Education. 

Although  the  problem  of  the  child  who  is  guilty  of  truancy 
or  of  bad  conduct  is  relatively  a  small  part  of  the  problem  of 
non-attendance,  it  is  nevertheless  absolutely  a  serious  problem 
if  the  large  numbers  of  boys  brought  to  court  on  this  charge  are 
considered.  The  Parental  School  was  opened  on  January  31, 
1902,  and  between  that  date  and  the  close  of  the  school  year 

'See  chap,  v,  p.  86.  See  also  chap,  xi,  "The  Parental  School,"  and 
chap,  xiv,  "Enforcement  of  the  Compulsory  Education  Law  in  the  Municipal 
Court  of  Chicago." 


150    TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


1914-15,  4,198  boys  had  been  brought  into  the  Juvenile  Court 
as  truants  and  committed  to  the  Parental  School  and  1,461  other 
truant  children  who  were  not  committed  were  brought  into  the 
court  for  discipline.  It  was  believed  that  a  careful  study  of  the 
records  of  the  court  and  of  the  Parental  School  would  lead  to  a 
better  understanding  of  the  problem  of  truancy  as  well  as  the 
related  problem  of  non-attendance. 

Table  XII  shows  the  number  of  children  brought  into  court 
each  year  from  the  year  1902,  when  the  Parental  School  was 
established,  down  to  July  i,  1915. 

TABLE  XH 

NUMBER   OF   CHILDREN   BROUGHT   INTO   THE 
JUVENILE  COURT  AS  TRUANTS  OR  SCHOOL- 
ROOM INCORRIGIBLES,  1902-15* 


Year  Ending 
June  30 

Boys 

Girk 

Total 

IOO2  .  . 

141 

171 

IQO?  .  . 

203 

2O  2, 

1004.  . 

288 

288 

loo?  .  . 

270 

270 

1006.  . 

74  e 

«4C 

IOO7  .  . 

38q 

^8<; 

IQ08  . 

?8i 

381 

IQOQ.  . 

506 

=;o6 

IQIO.  . 

570 

C7Q 

IQII  .  . 

tC24 

7 

C?I 

IQI2.  . 

44-2 

4 

AAJ 

IQI2.  .  . 

£47 

12 

^6O 

1014.  . 

406 

•t 

400 

IQIS.  • 

SM 

10 

<^2< 

5,622 

37 

5,659 

^The  data  in  this  table  and  in  the  other  tables  in  this  chapter  were  obtained  by  tran- 
scribing the  Juvenile  Court  records  of  children  brought  in  for  truancy  or  violation  of  school 
rules.  The  report  of  the  Board  of  Education  contains  each  year  a  statement  of  the  number 
of  children  brought  into  court  on  these  charges  and  the  number  committed  to  the  Parental 
School,  and  'as  these  numbers  do  not  correspond  exactly  with  those  in  our  tables,  it  should  be 
explained  that  the  differences,  which  are  slight  except  for  a  single  year  (1014),  are  probably 
due  to  the  difficulties  attendant  upon  transcribing  court  records  months  or  years  after  they 
are  made.  It  was,  however,  necessary  to  make  the  transcription  if  other  facts  which  are  not 
published  in  the  board's  report  were  to  be  obtained.  Our  table  shows  a  total  of  s,i34  children 
brought  into  court  between  1001-2  and  1913-14;  a  similar  table  compiled  from  the  pub- 
lished reports  shows  a  total  of  5,740  children — that  is,  our  numbers  are  for  some  years  slightly 
lower  and  for  some  years  slightly  higher  than  those  published.  Some  difference  may  arise 


THE  HABITUAL  TRUANT  151 

This  table  obviously  does  not  represent  the  total  number  of 
wilfully  truant  children  in  Chicago  during  these  years,  but  only 
those  extreme  cases  that  could  not  be  dealt  with  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  Compulsory  Education  without  the  assistance  of  the 
Juvenile  Court  and  the  Chicago  Parental  School.  The  increase 
in  the  number  of  boys  brought  to  court  was  almost  steady  from 
year  to  year  until  1910,  and  probably  kept  pace  with  the 
increase  in  the  juvenile  population  of  Chicago.  This  does  not 
necessarily  indicate  that  conditions  were  unchanged  and  that 
truancy  was  not  being  checked,  but  may  be  evidence  of  an 
improvement  in  the  standard  of  school  attendance  required 
and  in  the  resources  for  taking  care  of  truant  boys,  such  as  the 
increase  in  the  capacity  of  the  Parental  School  and  in  the  num- 
ber of  truant  officers.  It  was,  of  course,  almost  useless  to  bring 
boys  into  court  as  truants  when  the  accommodations  at  the 
Parental  School  were  too  limited  to  care  for  them  even  if 
the  court  wished  to  commit  them.  The  slight  falling  off  in  the 
number  of  truants  in  1905  was  probably  due  to  the  general 
improvement  in  school  attendance  brought  about  by  the  com- 
pulsory education  law  which  went  into  operation  July  i,  1903. 
The  more  recent  decline  in  the  number  committed  may  be  due 
to  the  fact  that  some  of  those  previously  committed  have  been 
held  for  longer  periods  and  that  there  are  fewer  vacancies  at 
the  school  for  new  commitments. 

Leaving  the  question  of  numbers,  we  consider  next,  in 
Table  XIII,  the  ages  of  the  children  brought  to  court  on  the 
charge  of  truancy  or  "violation  of  rules"  during  the  period 
1902-15.  The  ages  are  given  only  for  the  whole  group  of 

from  the  fact  that  we  have  included  only  "new  cases"  in  our  table — that  is,  a  child  brought 
into  court  in  1006,  1907,  and  1908  would  be  counted  only  once  (for  the  year  1906)  in  our 
table.  Whether  the  same  method  is  used  in  compiling  the  published  statistics  it  is  not 
possible  to  say.  For  one  year  only,  1914,  is  there  a  serious  discrepancy  between  the  two  sets 
of  figures.  The  published  report  shows  826  children  brought  to  court  and  424  committed; 
our  tables  give  499  brought  to  court  and  346  committed  during  the  same  year.  We  are 
at  a  loss  to  explain  so  wide  a  difference,  but  it  seems  probable  that  "continuances"  and 
"recommitments"  are  counted  with  "new  cases"  in  making  up  the  published  total  for  that 
year,  whereas  our  total  refers  only  to  the  number  of  boys,  not  to  the  number  of  cases  in 
court.  Unless  the  method  of  compiling  the  published  statistics  was  changed  in  1914,  it  is 
difficult  to  understand  why  similar  differences  do  not  appear  in  earlier  years. 


152     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


children  brought  into  court  during  this  period,  instead  of  being 
given  for  each  year  separately,  because  there  seemed  to  be  very 
little  change  from  year  to  year  in  the  proportion  of  children  of 

different  ages. 

TABLE  XIII 

AGES  OF  CHILDREN  BROUGHT  TO  COURT  AS 

TRUANTS  OR  SCHOOLROOM  INCORRI- 

GIBLES,  1902-15 


Age 

Number 

Percentage 

7  years.  . 

GA. 

I 

8  years  

164 

o  years.  . 

460 

8 

10  years  

86? 

IS 

ii  years  

1,183 

21 

1  2  years  

I,  COO 

27 

n  years.  . 

I,4IC 

2< 

Total  

•>,6i;o* 

IOO 

*The  total  is  5,650  instead  of  5,659  because  the  age 
was  not  reported  in  9  cases. 

This  table  shows  that  the  great  majority — nearly  three- 
fourths — of  these  unruly  children  were  eleven,  twelve,  or  thirteen 
years  of  age  and  15  per  cent  were  ten  years  old.  Although  only 
12  per  cent  of  the  whole  number  were  below  the  age  of  ten, 
this  is  a  relatively  large  number  of  such  very  young  children; 
the  fact  that  nearly  seven  hundred  boys  who  were  only  seven, 
eight,  or  nine  years  old  were  considered  so  seriously  truant  as 
to  necessitate  bringing  them  into  court  is  very  significant.  It 
indicates,  as  do  so  many  other  facts,  the  close  relationship  be- 
tween truancy  and  dependency.  There  is  obviously  something 
lacking  in  a  home  that  cannot  discipline  a  boy  under  ten  years 
of  age. 

It  is  of  course  important  to  know  not  only  the  number  of 
children  brought  into  court  as  truants,  but  the  number  of  boys 
committed  to  the  Parental  School.  Table  XIV  shows  the 
number  of  boys  committed  from  1902  to  1915.  The  table  is 


THE  HABITUAL  TRUANT 


153 


given  by  years,  because  any  change  from  year  to  year  in  the  pro- 
portionate number  of  boys  committed  might  indicate  a  change 
of  policy  with  regard  to  the  administration  of  the  law.  The 
children  who  were  brought  into  court  but  not  committed  to  the 
Parental  School  were  usually  paroled  or  their  cases  were  con- 
tinued to  give  the  officers  a  chance  to  get  more  information  or 

TABLE  XIV 

NUMBER  OF  CHILDREN  BROUGHT  INTO  COURT  AND 

NUMBER  OF  BOYS  COMMITTED  TO  THE  CHICAGO 

PARENTAL  SCHOOL,  1902-15 


Year  Ending 
June  30 

Children 
Brought  into 
Court 

Boys  Committed 
to  Chicago 
Parental  School 

Percentage 
Committed 

IQO2  .  . 

HI 

02 

7O 

IQO?  .  . 

203 

161 

70 

1004.  . 

288 

222 

77 

IQCK  .  . 

270 

212 

76 

1006.  . 

24? 

24  <: 

71 

IQO7  .  . 

^8  <; 

26? 

60 

1008.  . 

181 

2C7 

68 

IQOQ.  . 

«;o6 

374 

74 

IOIO.  . 

C7Q 

47J 

82 

IOII  .  . 

C7I 

3Q« 

74 

IQI2  .  . 

•117 

348 

78 

IQI7  .   . 

s6o 

411 

73 

IQI4.  . 

400 

346 

60 

IQIC.   . 

C2S 

•2  07 

76 

Total  

5,659 

4,198 

74 

to  give  the  child  an  opportunity  to  show  improvement,  or  in 
order  to  have  a  new  petition  made  out  when  the  child  could 
more  properly  be  dealt  with  as  a  delinquent  or  a  dependent. 
It  should  perhaps  be  explained  that  there  have  been  a  few  girls 
among  the  truants  brought  into  court,  but  that  no  girls  have 
been  committed,  since  the  Parental  School  is  exclusively  for  boys.1 

1  See  chap,  xiv,  "Enforcement  of  the  Compulsory  Education  Law  in 
the  Municipal  Court  of  Chicago,"  for  a  further  discussion  of  the  problem 
of  the  truant  girl. 


154     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

The  number  of  boys  committed  varied  year  by  year  from 
68  per  cent  to  82  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  children 
brought  into  court.  In  general,  it  seems  to  be  the  policy  of  the 
Department  of  Compulsory  Education  not  to  bring  boys  into 
court  until  all  other  methods  of  getting  them  to  school  have 
proved  futile.  The  department  then  has  a  "clear  case"  in 
court  showing  the  need  for  Parental  School  care. 

The  Department  of  Compulsory  Education  takes  pains  to 
obtain  if  possible  the  consent  of  the  parents  to  the  child's  com- 
mitment to  the  Parental  School,  before  bringing  the  case  into 
court.  Although  the  consent  of  the  parents  is  not  recognized 
by  the  court  as  an  essential  preliminary  to  the  child's  commit- 
ment,1 the  policy  of  the  department  in  asking  the  parents' 
consent  is  undoubtedly  wise,  since  in  the  majority  of  cases  the 
consent  is  given  and,  as  a  result,  the  action  of  the  court  is 
rendered  doubly  impressive  through  this  co-operation  of  the 
parents  and  the  school  authorities  for  the  child's  good.  An 
examination  of  the  records  for  a  single  year  showed  that  in 
nearly  two-thirds  of  the  cases  in  which  the  parents'  attitude 
was  given,  they  consented  to  the  child's  being  sent  to  the 
Parental  School. 

In  the  beginning,  the  activities  of  the  Department  of  Com- 
pulsory Education  were  confined  almost  exclusively  to  the 
public  schools,  but  in  the  year  1907-8,  the  services  of  the  depart- 
ment were  extended  to  all  local  schools,2  including  not  only  252 
public  schools,  but  142  Catholic  parochial  schools,  35  Lutheran 
parochial  schools,  and  6  other  private  schools  which  existed  at 
that  time.  Before  this  date,  public  and  parochial  schools  alike 
were  imposed  upon  by  parents  who  sought  deliberately  to  mis- 
lead the  school  authorities  and  to  evade  the  law  by  transferring 

1  On  the  legal  effect  of  the  parents'  refusal  to  consent  to  commitment, 
see  chap,  i,  p.  9. 

3  Fifty -fourth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago 
(1907-8),  p.  282. 


THE  HABITUAL  TRUANT 


I5S 


children  from  one  school  to  another.  Such  evasions  of  the  law 
were  not  so  easy  after  the  parochial  schools  were  brought  under 
the  supervision  of  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education. 
Table  XV  shows  the  number  of  children  brought  to  court  each 
year  from  the  public  and  from  the  parochial  schools.  From  this 
table  it  is  seen  that  although  even  in  the  early  years  a  few  boys 
had  been  brought  in  from  the  parochial  schools,  the  proportion 
of  boys  from  these  schools  increased  very  substantially  after 
the  year  1908,  when  the  services  of  the  truant  officers  were 
extended  to  parochial  school  children. 

TABLE  XV 

TABLE  SHOWING  THE  NUMBER  OF  CHILDREN  FROM 
PUBLIC  AND  FROM  PAROCHIAL  SCHOOLS  BROUGHT 
INTO  COURT  AS  TRUANTS  EACH  YEAR  FROM  1902 
TO  1915 


YEAR  ENDING 
JUNE  30 

NUMBER  OF  TRUANTS  FROM 

TOTALS 

Public  Schools 

Parochial  Schools 

IQO2  .  . 

126 
198 
281 
263 
334 
367 
358 
432 
469 
420 
367 
459 
384 
430 

5 
5 
7 
16 
ii 
18 
23 
74 
no 
in 
80 

101 

"5 
95 

131 
203 
288 
279 
345 
385 
38i 
506 
579 
53i 
447 
560 

499 
525 

IQO3  .  . 

IQOA  .  . 

IQO?  .  . 

IQO6     . 

IQO7 

1008.  . 

IQOQ  .  . 

IQIO.  . 

IQII  .  . 

IQI2 

IQM  -  . 

IOI4.  . 

IQI<  .  . 

Total  

4,888 

771 

5,659 

It  is  important  to  note  that  although  all  these  children  were 
brought  into  court  on  a  charge  of  truancy  and  were  all  called 
truants,  they  were  technically  charged  either  with  (i)  habitual 


156     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


truancy,  or  (2)  violation  of  school  rules,  or  (3)  both  offenses. 
Table  XVI  shows  the  number  of  boys  brought  in  on  different 
charges  and  committed  to  the  Parental  School  during  the  years 
from  1908  to  1915,  the  years  for  which  data  were  available. 
It  appears  that  during  a  period  of  eight  years  79  per  cent  of 
the  boys  brought  into  court  by  the  Department  of  Compulsory 
Education  and  committed  to  the  Chicago  Parental  School 
were  brought  in  on  a  straight  charge  of  truancy,  17  per  cent 
were  charged  with  disorderly  conduct  at  school,  that  is,  "viola- 
tion of  the  rules,"  and  the  remaining  4  per  cent  were  charged 
with  the  double  offense  of  truancy  and  violation  of  rules. 

TABLE  XVI 

NUMBER  OF  BOYS  CHARGED  WITH  HABITUAL  TRUANCY  AND  "VIOLATION 
OF  RULES"  COMMITTED  TO  THE  PARENTAL  SCHOOL,  1908-15 


Year  Ending 
June  30 

Habitual 
Truancy 

Violation 
of  Rules 

Both  Charges 

Total 

1008 

104. 

48 

ie 

2?7 

IQOQ 

308 

S8 

8 

174 

IQIO.  . 

380 

48 

36 

477 

IQII.  . 

122 

CO 

2\ 

7QS 

IQI2.  . 

2<;8 

T\ 

17 

348 

IQI? 

121 

70 

II 

411 

1014 

272 

66 

8 

346 

IQIS.  • 

318 

7? 

6 

397 

Total  

2,382 

40  ^ 

124 

3,001 

Percentage  .  .  . 

79 

17 

4 

ipo 

The  question  of  the  disposition  of  the  truants  and  "school- 
room incorrigibles "  who  were  brought  into  court  is  decided  by 
the  judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court  on  the  same  basis  on  which  he 
determines  the  disposition  of  the  cases  of  delinquent  and  depend- 
ent children.  Children  are  not  committed  to  institutions  for 
punishment,  but  because  no  better  method  of  dealing  with  them 
is  at  hand.  The  persistently  truant  or  extremely  incorrigible  boy 


THE  HABITUAL  TRUANT  157 

who  comes  from  a  good  home,  and  who  has  parents  able  to 
devote  time  and  effort  to  getting  him  to  school,  is  likely  to 
be  returned  to  his  home,  while  another  boy  whose  offense  has 
been  much  less  grave  may  be  sent  to  the  Parental  School  if 
home  conditions  are  less  favorable. 

It  is  a  matter  of  considerable  importance  that  so  many  boys 
who  seemed  to  be  in  rebellion,  as  it  were,  against  the  school 
system  provided  for  them  by  the  community  could  be  dealt 
with  only  by  bringing  them  into  court.  An  attempt  was  made, 
therefore,  to  ascertain  the  causes  of  their  unwillingness  to  go 
to  school  and  of  their  serious  misbehavior  while  there,  and,  if 
possible,  how  far  the  home  was  responsible,  or  the  school,  or  the 
community. 

In  the  hope  of  throwing  some  light  on  these  questions,  a 
more  thorough  study  of  all  the  truancy  cases  brought  into 
court  during  a  single  year  was  undertaken.  Such  facts  as  could 
be  obtained  from  the  court  records  were  transcribed  for  the  579 
truant  boys  of  the  year  1910,  and  these  facts  were  supple- 
mented by  such  other  data  as  could  be  obtained  from  the 
Parental  School  records.  Later  the  principals  of  the  schools 
from  which  the  boys  had  come  and  the  truant  officers  who 
brought  them  into  court  were  interviewed,  and,  finally,  their 
homes  were  visited  and  an  effort  was  made  to  discuss  sym- 
pathetically with  the  mother  of  each  boy  his  conduct  before 
and  after  his  commitment.  As  a  result  of  the  visits  to  the 
homes  valuable  information  was  obtained  relating  to  the  families 
of  these  boys.  Home  conditions  are  probably  the  factor  of 
first  importance  in  the  problem  of  truancy.  Neglect  in  the 
home  due  to  poverty,  the  death  of  the  father,  invalidism  of  the 
mother  when  there  are  a  large  number  of  small  children,  will 
almost  inevitably  have  a  disastrous  effect  upon  the  school 
attendance  of  the  children. 

It  was  pointed  out  in  a  preceding  chapter  that  while  it  is  not 
easy  to  determine  on  the  basis  of  a  single  visit  to  the  home,  the 


158     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

condition  of  the  family  with  respect  to  poverty  or  comfort, 
nevertheless  sufficient  information  can  be  obtained  to  make 
possible  the  classification  of  the  families  into  economic  groups.1 
Table  XVII  shows  the  number  and  the  percentage  of  boys  who 

TABLE  XVII 

ECONOMIC  STATUS  OF  HOMES  or  368  PARENTAL 
SCHOOL  BOYS 


Economic  Group 

Number 

Percentage 

Very  poor  

ICQ 

43 

Poor  

1^6 

37 

Comfortable 

6c 

it 

Very  comfortable.  . 

8 

2 

Total  

368 

IOO 

came  from  the  different  kinds  of  homes.  It  shows  also  that 
of  the  368  boys  whose  homes  were  visited,  the  largest  number 
in  any  one  group,  43  per  cent,  were  from  "very  poor"  homes 
and  that  80  per  cent  of  the  boys  were  in  the  two  lowest  groups 
of  "poor"  and  "very  poor"  families.  Poverty  is  not  necessarily 
the  cause  of  truancy,  for  truancy  and  poverty  alike  may  be  due 
to  one  and  the  same  cause — drink  or  incompetence,  for  example 
— but  truancy  has,  nevertheless,  a  very  clear  relation  to  poverty. 
A  very  considerable  number  of  these  "truant"  families  were 
on  the  books  of  one  or  more  of  the  charitable  organizations  of  the 
city.  The  number  that  obtained  public  outdoor  relief  through 
the  county  agent's  office  could  not  be  ascertained,  but  inquiries 
made  at  the  "confidential  exchange"  showed  that  117  out  of 
the  368  families  of  truant  boys  were  being  assisted  by  different 
social  agencies,  chiefly,  of  course,  by  the  United  Charities. 

It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  point  out  that  the  families  that 
furnish  the  truant  candidates  for  the  Parental  School  are  not 


1  See  chap,  ix,  "Non-Attendance  at  the  Source,"  p.  124,  for  a  discussion 
of  the  method  of  classification. 


THE  HABITUAL  TRUANT 


159 


only  poor  but  foreign,  and  that  many  of  these  boys  are  the 
children  of  immigrant  parents  who  have  never  learned  to  speak 
English  and  who  are  obviously  unable  to  understand  our  edu- 
cational methods  and  policy.  These  truants  and  incorrigibles 
also  suffer  from  the  fact  that  their  homes  are  broken  as  well  as 
poor  and  foreign.  A  very  considerable  number  of  truant  boys 
were  the  children  of  widowed  or  deserted  mothers;  some  were 
motherless  or  wholly  orphaned.  Table  XVIII  shows  the  num- 

TABLE  XVIII 
PARENTAL  STATUS  OF  TRUANT  CHILDREN,  1908-15 


Parental  Condition 

Number 

Percentage 

Father  dead                   

680 

17 

Mother  dead  

741 

g 

Both  parents  dead  

78 

2 

Separated  or  divorced  

•2f 

I 

Father  deserted  

121 

Mother  deserted   

•2Q 

I 

One  or  both  parents  insane  
Father  or  mother  blind  or  crip- 
pled. . 

16 
6 

* 
* 

Families  in  abnormal  condi- 
tion      .  .         

1,307 

33 

Families  apparently  normal 

2,683 

67 

Total  number  of  families  f 

3,990 

zoo 

*Less  than  i  per  cent. 

fParental  condition  was  not  reported  in  38  cases. 

ber  of  children  who  came  from  homes  of  this  kind  during  the 
eight-year  period  for  which  data  were  available.  According 
to  this  table  67  per  cent  of  the  boys  came  from  homes  that  were 
apparently  normal  in  that  they  had  both  parents  living,  and 
33  per  cent,  a  very  large  proportion,  were  from  homes  broken 
by  death,  desertion,  or  some  similar  calamity.1  In  20  per  cent 

'It  is  of  interest  that  data  for  the  year  1909-10,  when  information 
was  secured  from  records  of  private  agencies  to  supplement  court  records, 
show  an  even  larger  proportion  of  broken  homes. 


160     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

of  the  cases  the  boy  was  the  child  of  a  widowed  or  deserted 
mother,  who  was  obliged  to  work  in  order  to  keep  her  home 
and  children  together. 

It  seems  clear  that  the  working  mother  is  an  important 
factor  in  promoting  truancy.  For  example,  out  of  368  boys 
whose  homes  were  visited,  122,  or  33  per  cent,  had  working 
mothers.  The  occupations  of  these  women  were  mostly 
unskilled  and  underpaid.  They  were  chiefly  washwomen,  scrub- 
women, and  seamstresses,  but  some  were  waitresses  and 
midwives,  a  few  sold  newspapers  on  the  street,  and  others 
worked  in  factories.  In  many  cases  their  work  was  irregular. 
Either  they  were  out  of  work  entirely  at  times,  or  they  worked 
only  two  or  three  days  in  the  week.  The  significant  thing  is 
that  so  many  of  these  women  who  try  to  be  wage-earners  and 
at  the  same  time  mothers  and  home-makers  for  a  large  family 
of  children  fail  in  both  occupations.  The  mother  is  obliged  to 
neglect  both  her  home  and  her  children,  and  truancy  is  one  of 
the  first  symptoms  of  serious  neglect. 

It  should  not,  however,  be  overlooked  that  a  few  of  these 
boys  came  from  comfortable  homes.  Table  XVII  showed  18 
per  cent  from  fairly  comfortable  and  2  per  cent  from  unques- 
tionably comfortable  homes.  Although  small  numerically, 
this  group  of  boys  presents  a  most  troublesome  problem.  It 
is  probably  true  that  the  cases  of  children  from  fairly  well-to-do 
but  undisciplined  homes  are  the  most  difficult  of  treatment. 
Such  homes  are  not  degraded,  and  there  is  no  obviously  demoral- 
izing condition  on  which  an  appeal  to  the  Juvenile  Court  might 
be  based;  they  are  not  homes  in  receipt  of  charitable  relief  and 
so  they  are  not  subject  to  the  authority  and  control  to  which 
some  weaker  families  are  subjected. 

For  example,  in  one  such  " comfortable"  home  a  truant 
boy,  who  had  been  greatly  indulged,  was  allowed  to  sell  papers 
on  the  street  until  he  became  demoralized.  The  mother  ex- 
cused him,  saying  "he  did  not  like  to  go  to  school  but  liked  to 


THE  HABITUAL  TRUANT  161 

sell  papers  and  to  make  his  pennies,"  although  she  said  that  he 
did  not  need  to  earn  money.  The  principal,  of  course,  said  that 
the  mother  spoiled  him  by  letting  him  stay  away  from  school. 

In  another  "comfortable"  home,  a  well-furnished  but 
extremely  disorderly  six-room  apartment,  where  there  were  four 
children,  the  father  was  a  man  of  good  habits,  an  engineer, 
earning  very  good  wages  but  working  at  night,  so  that  the 
children  saw  very  little  of  him.  The  mother,  who  had  been 
married  at  seventeen,  was  incompetent  and  unable  to  control 
the  children,  even  when  they  were  quite  small.  The  father, 
who  was  Catholic,  and  the  mother,  who  was  Protestant,  quar- 
reled a  great  deal.  They  were  alternately  very  severe  and  very 
indulgent  with  the  children,  and  there  was  a  general  lack  of 
discipline  in  the  home.  When  the  two  boys  were  nine  and  seven 
years  old,  they  were  both  brought  into  court  for  habitual 
truancy  and  sent  to  the  Parental  School. 

A  careful  study  of  the  home  conditions  from  which  the 
Parental  School  boys  came  showed  many  similar  cases  of  com- 
fortable but  "slack"  homes,  of  indifferent  fathers  and  of  weak, 
easy-going,  indolent  mothers.  Sometimes  the  fact  that  there 
is  a  large  family  of  children  gives  the  mother  an  excuse  for  neg- 
lecting some  of  them,  but  unfortunately  those  neglected  are 
the  ones  hi  need  of  special  care. 

One  boy,  who  was  sent  to  the  Parental  School  when  he  was 
only  nine  years  old,  belonged  to  a  family  of  nine  children.  The 
mother  complained  that  she  could  not  control  him  and  wished 
to  have  him  committed.  She  said  that  he  had  begun  smoking 
cigarettes  when  he  was  only  six  years  old  and  the  habit  had 
been  growing  on  him  steadily,  that  he  stayed  out  late  at  night, 
and  was  quite  beyond  her  control.  After  four  months  at  the 
Parental  School  the  boy  was  paroled,  but  in  six  months  he  was 
returned  again.  The  second  tune  he  remained  eight  months, 
and  he  told  the  investigator  who  called  at  his  home  during  his 
second  parole  that  he  would  be  glad  to  go  back  again. 


1 62     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Occasionally  also  there  are  cases  of  unreasonable  and  hys- 
terical parents  who  are  constantly  interfering  with  the  school 
rules  and  the  regulations.  In  one  family  in  which  there  were 
ten  children,  all  of  whom  had  had  trouble  at  school  because  of 
the  mother's  constant  interferences,  one  boy  found  it  easier 
and  pleasanter  to  play  truant  than  to  be  the  occasion  of  per- 
sistent wrangling.  It  became  necessary  to  commit  him  to  the 
Parental  School  as  a  habitual  truant,  although  he  came  from 
a  comfortable  home  and  had  well-meaning  and  seemingly 
intelligent  parents. 

In  another  family  two  boys  from  a  good  home  gave  a  great 
deal  of  trouble  at  school  because  they  were  encouraged  by  their 
parents  in  a  defiant  attitude  toward  any  attempt  to  discipline 
them.  The  younger  boy  was  finally  sent  to  the  Parental 
School  for  violation  of  the  rules  and  for  truancy,  and  the  mother 
was  so  indignant  at  the  attempt  to  discipline  her  boy  that  she 
moved  out  of  the  neighborhood.  The  boy  spent  two  months 
at  the  Parental  School,  and,  although  the  mother  disapproved 
very  strongly  of  the  boy's  commitment,  she  told  the  investi- 
gator who  questioned  her  that  after  frequent  visits  to  the  school 
she  came  to  think  highly  of  it  and  she  felt  sure  that  it  had  had 
a  most  beneficial  effect  upon  her  son. 

Lack  of  discipline  was  found  to  be  especially  common  in 
cases  in  which  the  mother  was  ill  or  the  parents  were  dead  or 
divorced  and  the  children  living  with  relatives.  One  boy's 
grandmother,  for  example,  had  always  spoiled  him  by  giving 
him  pennies  for  cigarettes  and  refusing  to  co-operate  with  the 
teachers.  In  another  case  the  parents  were  divorced  and  the 
ten-year-old  boy,  who  was  in  the  second  grade,  was  brought 
into  court  as  a  habitual  truant.  He  had  attended  at  least  six 
different  schools,  public  and  private,  and  was  charged  with 
habitual  truancy,  incorrigibility,  and  stealing.  It  appeared 
that  his  parents  were  divorced,  that  his  mother  had  remarried, 
that  the  boy  had  lived  for  years  with  his  grandmother  and  had 


THE  HABITUAL  TRUANT  163 

then  divided  his  time  between  five  aunts,  two  uncles,  his  step- 
father's home,  and  his  father's  boarding  place.  After  he  had 
been  five  months  at  the  Parental  School,  he  was  paroled  to  live 
with  his  mother,  but  within  a  week  jumped  from  a  second-story 
window  at  midnight  and  ran  away  to  an  aunt  who  was  glad  to 
harbor  him  until  he  was  returned  to  the  Parental  School  for 
violating  his  parole.  After  another  term  there,  he  was  again 
paroled  to  his  mother,  but  soon  ran  away  to  his  father,  who  was 
very  indulgent  and  liked  to  have  him  around,  although  the 
father's  boarding  place  was  in  a  most  disreputable  neighbor- 
hood and  was  an  entirely  unfit  place  for  a  boy. 

Attention  has  been  called  to  the  fact  that  these  children  who 
offend  against  the  rules  of  the  school  or  refuse  to  attend  the 
school  sessions  are  brought  before  the  same  court  that  deals 
with  delinquent  and  dependent  children  under  the  juvenile  court 
law.  In  a  later  chapter1  attention  is  called  to  the  cases  of 
truant  children  who  had  already  been  before  the  court,  either  as 
delinquent  or  dependent.  But  the  cases  cited  here  indicate 
that  many  of  the  truants  and  schoolroom  incorrigibles  share 
with  the  other  two  groups  their  essential  characteristics,  namely 
"lack  of  proper  parental  care."2  The  truant  child  may  not 
have  become  technically  delinquent,  the  home  may  not  yet  have 

1  See  chap,  xiii,  "Truancy  in  Relation  to  Dependency  and  Delinquency." 

2  See  Illinois  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  23,  sec.  169,  in  which  the  following 
definitions  are  found: 

"For  the  purpose  of  this  act,  the  words  'dependent  child'  and  'neg- 
lected child'  shall  mean  any  male  child  who  while  under  the  age  of  seven- 
teen years  or  any  female  child  who  while  under  the  age  of  eighteen  years, 
for  any  reason,  is  destitute,  homeless  or  abandoned;  or  dependent  upon  the 
public  for  support;  or  has  not  proper  parental  care  or  guardianship;  or 
habitually  begs  or  receives  alms;  or  is  found  living  in  any  house  of  ill-fame 
or  with  any  vicious  or  disreputable  person;  or  has  a  home  which  by  reason 
of  neglect,  cruelty  or  depravity,  on  the  part  of  its  parents,  guardian  or  any 
other  person  in  whose  care  it  may  be,  is  an  unfit  place  for  such  a  child;  and 
any  child  who  while  under  the  age  of  ten  years  is  found  begging,  peddling 
or  selling  any  articles  or  singing  or  playing  any  musical  instrument  for  gain 


1 64     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

reached  the  stage  of  unfitness  which  renders  it  imperative  for  the 
child  to  be  placed  under  court  guardianship  as  dependent. 
Later  he  may  become  delinquent  or  dependent,  but  for  the  time 
being  he  remains  under  the  educational  authorities.  Any 
social  agency  that  can  discover  the  conditions  hostile  to  child 
life  and  that  has  the  power  to  deal  with  them  for  the  safe- 
guarding of  the  child  and  the  upbuilding  of  the  home  has  an 
unparalleled  opportunity  for  social  usefulness.  Some  of  the 
machinery  that  has  been  devised  in  Chicago  for  dealing  both 
with  truant  children  and  with  indifferent  or  defiant  parents 
will  be  described  in  the  next  two  chapters. 

upon  the  street  or  giving  any  public  entertainments  or  accompanies  or  is 
used  in  aid  of  any  person  so  doing. 

"The  words  'delinquent  child'  shall  mean  any  male  child  who  while 
under  the  age  of  seventeen  years  or  any  female  child  who  while  under  the 
age  of  eighteen  years,  violates  any  law  of  this  State;  or  is  incorrigible,  or 
knowingly  associates  with  thieves,  vicious  or  immoral  persons;  or  without 
just  cause  and  without  that  [the]  consent  of  its  parents,  guardian  or  custo- 
dian absents  itself  from  its  home  or  place  of  abode,  or  is  growing  up  in  idle- 
ness or  crime;  or  knowingly  frequents  a  house  of  ill-repute;  or  knowingly 
frequents  any  policy  shop  or  place  where  any  gaming  device  is  operated;  or 
frequents  any  saloon  or  dram  shop  where  intoxicating  liquors  are  sold;  or 
patronizes  or  visits  any  public  pool  room  or  bucket  shop;  or  wanders  about 
the  streets  in  the  night  time  without  being  on  any  lawful  business  or  lawful 
occupations;  or  habitually  wanders  about  any  railroad  yards  or  tracks  or 
jumps  or  attempts  to  jump  onto  [any]  moving  train;  or  enters  any  car 
or  engine  without  lawful  authority;  or  uses  vile,  obscene,  vulgar,  profane  or 
indecent  language  in  [any]  public  place  or  about  any  school  house;  or  is 
guilty  of  indecent  or  lascivious  conduct;  any  child  committing  any  of  these 
acts  herein  mentioned  shall  be  deemed  a  delinquent  child  and  shall  be  cared 
for  as  such  in  the  manner  hereinafter  provided." 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  PARENTAL  SCHOOL 

Attention  was  called  in  the  chapter  dealing  with  the  causes 
of  non-attendance1  to  the  fact  that,  in  a  number  of  cases,  the 
parents  are  unable  to  make  their  children  go  regularly  to  school 
or  to  secure  their  good  behavior  when  they  are  there.  The 
following  quotation  from  a  report  of  the  Board  of  Education 
published  in  1893  indicates  the  need  that  was  felt  more  than 
twenty  years  ago  for  an  institution  adapted  to  the  peculiar 
needs  of  such  children,  and  the  serious  objections  felt  against 
suspension  from  school  as  the  only  penalty  for  misbehavior: 

Responsibility  for  the  proper  restraint,  training  and  care  of  this 
class  of  children,  rests  first  upon  the  parents,  then  upon  the  State. 
Many  parents  have  appealed  to  us  during  the  year,  asking  what 
could  be  done  to  save  a  wilful,  ungovernable  child.  No  provision 
is  made  for  their  restraint,  until  they  violate  some  law  under  which 
they  can  be  arrested  as  criminals,  and  then  they  are  committed  to  the 
jail,  bridewell,  or  prison.  The  question  of  protecting  society  by  the 
right  education  of  these  children  has  been  considered  for  several 

years  by  the  various  clubs  and  charitable  organizations 

Instead  of  suspending  refractory  and  vicious  children  from  our  schools, 
provision  should  be  made  so  that  a  child  who  is  not  manageable  with 
better  children,  shall  first  be  placed  under  the  care  of  special  teachers 
in  a  disciplinary  school,  and  when  they  become  unmanageable  by 
parents  and  teachers,  they  should  be  confined  in  a  parental  home  or 
school,  thus  providing  a  means  of  properly  educating  and  training 
every  child. 

The  gradual  realization  of  the  necessity  for  providing 
effective  machinery  for  dealing  with  these  children  was  traced 

1  See  chap,  ix,  "Non-Attendance  at  the  Source,"  p.  146. 

165 


1 66     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

in  another  chapter,1  and  it  was  shown  that  when  the  parental 
school  law  was  passed  in  1899  and  the  Chicago  Parental  School 
finally  opened  its  doors  in  1902,  hope  was  expressed  that  there 
had  begun  a  new  era  in  the  care  of  children. 

The  parental  school  law2  provided  that  any  truant  officer 
or  any  agent  of  the  Board  of  Education  or  any  reputable  citizen 
of  Chicago  could  petition  the  Circuit  or  County  Court  (Juvenile 
Branch)  to  inquire  into  the  case  of  any  child  between  seven  and 
fourteen  years  of  age  who  was  found  not  to  be  attending  school 
or  was  reported  to  be  guilty  of  habitual  truancy  or  of  persistent 
violation  of  the  rules  of  the  school,  and  the  court  was  author- 
ized to  commit  any  such  child  to  the  Parental  School  until  he 
became  fourteen  years  of  age.  The  school  opened  January  31, 
1902,  and  between  that  date  and  the  end  of  the  school  year 
in  June,  1915,  4,198  boys  had  been  committed  to  the  insti- 
tution.3 

The  school  is  located  on  a  farm  in  the  sparsely  settled  north- 
west section  of  the  city,  known  as  Bowmanville.  The  farm 
contains  no  acres  and  is  stocked  with  farm  animals  and  fowls, 
so  that  the  boys  can  have  work  out  of  doors,  both  on  little  plots 
of  their  own  for  which  they  are  responsible,  and  in  connection 
with  the  general  work  of  the  farm  under  the  supervision  of  a 
trained  farmer  and  teacher  of  agriculture.  There  is  likewise 
provision  for  manual  training  of  the  usual  kind,  and,  of  course, 
for  the  ordinary  subjects  taught  in  the  first  seven  grades  of  the 
elementary  schools.  The  school,  which  was  able  to  care  for 
only  thirteen  boys  when  it  was  opened  in  January,  1902,  has 
been  enlarged  several  times  until  it  has  now  eight  cottages  in 
each  of  which  40  boys  can  be  cared  for. 

1  See  chap,  v,  "Parallel  Development  of  Child  Labor  and  Compulsory 
Education  Laws,"  p.  86. 

3  Illinois  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  122,  sees.  144,  145. 

J  See  chap,  x,  "The  Habitual  Truant  and  the  Schoolroom  Incorrigible," 
Table  XIV,  "Number  of  Boys  Committed  to  the  Parental  School,  1902-15." 


THE  PARENTAL  SCHOOL  167 

Under  the  law,  a  child  may  remain  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  school  until  he  is  fourteen  years  of  age,  when  he  is  auto- 
matically discharged.  No  provision  is  made  in  the  parental 
school  law  for  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  years  of 
age,  although  children  between  these  ages  are  now  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  compulsory  education  authorities.  This 
lack  of  provision  in  the  parental  school  law  for  children  who 
have  reached  the  age  of  fourteen  is  a  serious  omission.  When 
the  law  was  passed  in  1899,  the  compulsory  school  law  provided 
for  a  fourteen-year-age  limit,  but  the  amendment  to  the  com- 
pulsory law  in  1907  which  extended  the  period  of  compulsory 
attendance,  under  certain  conditions,  to  the  age  of  sixteen  should 
have  been  accompanied  by  a  change  in  the  parental  school  law 
extending  the  age  limit  to  sixteen  for  that  institution  or  providing 
a  new  school  for  children  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen. 
The  effect  of  the  discrepancy  between  the  age  limits  in  the 
parental  school  law  and  in  the  compulsory  attendance  law  has 
been  discussed  in  several  reports  of  the  Board  of  Education.1 
For  example,  the  president  of  the  board  in  his  annual  report  in 
1914  stated  emphatically  his  belief  in  the  necessity  of  amending 
the  law:  "The  parental  school  law  should  consistently  provide 
sixteen  years  as  the  maximum  age  of  commitment,  instead  of 
fourteen  as  at  present."2 

After  a  boy  has  been  committed  to  the  school  he  may  be 
released  on  parole  if  his  conduct  is  satisfactory  during  the  first 
four  weeks  after  his  commitment.  In  that  case  he  is  returned 
to  his  home,  but  remains  subject  to  the  control  of  the  school  for 
a  year  from  the  date  of  his  commitment.  Reports  are  made 
by  the  principal  of  the  school  to  which  the  child  is  returned 
after  his  release;  and  if  he  attends  school  regularly  and  is  well 

1  Annual  reports  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago,  1909-10,  p.  33; 
1910-11,  p. 133;   1911-12,  p. 183;   1913-14,  p. 417. 

2  Sixtieth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago  (1913-14), 
see  p.  14. 


1 68     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

behaved,  he  is  honorably  discharged  at  the  end  of  the  year. 
Otherwise  he  is  returned  to  the  Parental  School,  and  the  law 
provides  that  he  must  then  be  kept  there  for  at  least  three 
months  before  he  is  again  paroled,  and  in  case  he  is  returned 
a  second  time  to  the  school  he  must  be  kept  for  twelve  months 
before  his  third  parole  is  granted  him.  The  superintendent  of 
the  school  says  with  reference  to  the  conduct  of  the  boys  who 
are  paroled  that  "at  first  practically  all  reports  are  good,"  and 
it  is  not  until  a  few  months  after  parole  that  reports  of  unsatis- 
factory conduct  begin  to  come  in. 

The  truth  is,  of  course,  that  a  return  to  earlier  habits  on  the 
part  of  the  boy  is  exactly  what  is  to  be  expected,  if  he  returns 
to  the  conditions  out  of  which  arose  his  earlier  truancy  or 
incorrigibility.  For  example,  of  the  326  boys  in  the  school  on 
July  i,  1913,  no  came  from  homes  in  which  either  one  or  both 
parents  had  died,  and  36  from  homes  in  which  one  or  both  had 
deserted,  and  it  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  the  vast 
majority  come  from  homes  of  great  poverty.  The  lack  of  care 
resulting  from  these  conditions  which  were  largely  responsible 
for  bringing  the  boys  into  court  and  into  the  school  is  likely  to 
bring  them  there  again.  The  children  are,  of  course,  young. 
While  the  majority  of  the  boys  committed  are  twelve  and  thir- 
teen years  old,  there  are  each  year  considerable  numbers  of 
boys  of  eight,  nine,  and  ten  years  old.  It  is  not  a  matter  of 
surprise  if,  when  the  home  conditions  are  unsatisfactory,  the 
old  habits  reappear  when  these  very  young  boys  are  returned 
after  a  few  months  of  care  and  discipline  and  it  is  found  neces- 
sary again  to  take  them  away  from  the  old  conditions  and  the 
old  surroundings. 

It  has  been  said  that  these  boys  are  committed  to  the  school 
on  a  kind  of  indeterminate  sentence  with  a  minimum  com- 
mitment of  four  weeks.  Since  they  are  of  such  different  ages 
and  come  from  such  different  home  conditions,  it  is  found 
necessary  to  keep  some  of  them  much  longer  than  others. 


THE  PARENTAL  SCHOOL 


169 


Table  XIX  shows  for  the  boys  committed  during  one  repre- 
sentative year  the  number  of  months  spent  in  the  Parental 
School  on  their  first  commitment.  According  to  these  fig- 
ures, 58  per  cent  of  the  boys  committed  during  a  single  year 
remained  at  the  school  between  four  and  six  months;  25  per 
cent  remained  longer  than  six  months;  very  few  remained  more 
than  nine  months;  and  17  per  cent  remained  less  than  four 

months. 

TABLE  XIX 

NUMBER  OF  MONTHS  SPENT  IN  PARENTAL  SCHOOL  ON  FIRST 
COMMITMENT  BY  471  BOYS  COMMITTED  DURING  A  SINGLE  YEAR 


BOYS 

NUMBER  OF  MONTHS 

Number 

Percentage 

i  and  less  than    2  

26 

6 

Less  than 

2  and  less  than    3  

14 

3 

4  months: 

3  and  less  than    4  

39 

8 

17  per  cent 

4  and  less  than    5  

144 

30 

4-6  months: 

5  and  less  than    6  

130 

28 

58  per  cent 

6  and  less  than    7  

5° 

ii 

7  and  less  than    8  

33 

7 

8  and  less  than    9  

IS 

3 

More  than 

9  and  less  than  10  

7 

i 

6  months: 

10  and  less  than  n  

4 

i 

25  per  cent 

1  1  and  less  than  12  

5 

i 

1  2  and  over  

4 

i 

Total*  

471 

100 

*The  correct  total  of  boys  committed  during  the  year  was  473,  but  the 
total  is  given  as  471  instead  of  473  because  the  records  of  two  boys  could 
not  be  found.  The  data  given  are  for  the  year  ending  June  30, 1910. 

With  regard  to  the  effect  of  Parental  School  care  on  the  con- 
duct of  the  boys  committed,  the  statement  of  the  superintendent 
is  to  the  effect  that  "80  to  90  per  cent  of  the  boys  make 
good"  and  that  "  the  object  of  the  school  is  accomplished  in  fully 
85  per  cent  of  the  cases,"1  but  obviously  no  such  quantitative 

1  Sixtieth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago  (1913-14), 
p.  382. 


170     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

measure  can  be  accepted.  The  question  of  the  effect  of 
the  Parental  School  treatment  upon  the  boys  who  are  sent 
there  cannot  be  measured  by  any  statistical  tests.  Certain 
definite  facts  are  available  with  regard  to  the  number  of  boys 
returned  for  violation  of  parole,  but  it  must  be  pointed  out 
that  the  return  of  a  paroled  boy  is  the  result  of  careful  follow-up 
work  on  the  part  of  the  Parental  School  authorities.  It  would 
be  easy,  if  their  methods  were  lax,  to  show  a  negligible  percent- 
age of  returns.  Of  the  471  boys  committed  during  1909-10, 
the  year  for  which  figures  are  available,  119  had  been  returned 
to  the  school  for  violation  of  parole  up  to  April,  1912;  of  these 
19  had  been  twice  returned.  Of  the  remainder,  65  were  dis- 
charged from  the  school  because  the  age  limit  had  been  reached 
and  they  could  not  be  placed  on  parole  at  all,  and  112  others 
were  discharged  for  age  during  parole.  That  is,  294  boys  were 
under  fourteen  years  of  age  and  therefore  eligible  for  return, 
and  119,  or  40  per  cent  of  these,  were  returned. 

That  so  large  a  proportion  of  boys  were  returned  for  violating 
their  paroles  would  suggest  the  economy  of  supplementing  the 
work  of  the  school,  which  deals  only  with  the  child,  by  some 
agency  for  dealing  with  parents  and  the  home  or  with  the 
neighborhood  to  which  the  child  is  to  be  returned.  These 
figures  merely  confirm  and  give  a  quantitative  value  to  the  series 
of  cases  cited  in  the  preceding  chapters.  The  school  cannot, 
in  the  nature  of  things,  undo  the  consequences  of  the  earlier 
experiences  of  the  child,  nor  in  all  cases  render  him  immune 
to  the  harmful  influences  that  lie  about  his  home  and  the 
neighborhood  in  which  he  lives.  In  the  cases  of  many  children 
the  influence  of  the  Parental  School  is  completely  successful, 
and  in  the  case  of  some,  it  might  be  possible  to  secure  the  needed 
discipline  with  even  less  stringent  treatment. 

In  the  course  of  the  visits  of  our  investigators  to  the  homes 
of  the  truant  boys,  the  mothers  were  asked  whether  or  not  they 
had  ever  visited  the  Parental  School  and  what  they  thought 


THE  PARENTAL  SCHOOL  171 

of  the  training  the  boys  received  there.  It  appeared  that  in 
more  than  90  per  cent  of  the  cases,  the  mother  or  someone  from 
the  family  had  gone  to  see  the  boy  during  his  detention.  On 
the  whole,  the  mothers  who  visited  the  school — and  nearly 
three  hundred  of  them  did  visit  their  boys  while  they  were  there 
— were  very  much  pleased  with  it,  and  expressed  their  approval 
of  the  training  the  boys  received  there.  One  stepmother,  in 
fact,  said,  "the  place  was  much  too  good"  for  the  boys  who 
went  there,  and  one  mother  objected  that  it  was  such  a  nice 
place  that  it  made  the  boys  want  to  go  back. 

Testimony  to  the  effect  that  the  boy's  conduct  had  improved 
after  his  return  was  almost  universal.  Now  and  then,  of  course, 
a  mother  insisted  that  her  boy  had  been  committed  to  the  school 
only  because  of  the  malice  of  the  teacher  or  the  truant  officer, 
and  maintained  that  he  had  always  been  so  good  that  there 
was  no  room  for  improvement  in  his  conduct.  Sometimes,  too, 
the  mothers  explained  that  the  boys  had  been  released  because 
they  were  "of  age,"  and  now  that  they  had  gone  to  work  there 
could  be,  obviously,  no  further  trouble  about  school  attendance. 
But  more  than  two-thirds  of  all  the  mothers  interviewed  believed 
that  the  discipline  at  the  school  had  been  a  kind  of  moral  tonic 
and  that  the  boy's  conduct  had  shown  a  distinct  improvement 
after  his  return.  More  than  one  mother  who  thought  that  her 
boy  had  begun  to  show  signs  of  a  moral  relapse  spoke  with 
great  feeling  of  his  improved  conduct  just  after  he  returned  from 
the  school  and  wished  that  he  were  not  too  old  to  be  sent  back, 
as  she  feared  he  was  drifting  into  his  "old  ways"  and  was  again 
in  need  of  disciplinary  treatment  for  a  time. 

It  was  a  common  experience  for  the  investigator  to  be  told 
by  the  mother  of  the  boy's  superior  "manners"  after  his  release. 
"He  always  gets  a  chair  for  me  to  sit  down  and  never  used  to"; 
"He  always  hangs  up  his  clothes  now  and  puts  his  things 
away";  and  "They'll  learn  'em  to  do  there  what  you  can't 
learn  'em  at  home,"  were  the  comments  frequently  heard. 


172     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

One  boy  "came  home  fat"  and  was  "so  good"  to  her,  his 
mother  said,  until  he  lost  his  job  and  got  into  some  new  difficulty. 
Another  boy  who  was  "wild  and  crazy"  before  going  to  the 
school  came  back  "steady"  and  "cleaned  the  house  nicely" 
when  his  mother  asked  him  to.  Another  mother,  equally 
appreciative  of  improved  domestic  habits,  thought  the  school 
had  "done  everything"  for  her  boy;  "when  he  came  home," 
she  said,  "you  should  see  him,  he  kept  so  clean,  set  chairs  for 
me,  and  gave  the  lady  a  seat  in  the  car";  of  course,  she  said, 
she  "couldn't  always  keep  him  like  that,  but  never  yet  since 
his  return  "  had  he  made  any  trouble  that  she  knew  of.  Another 
mother  noted  that  her  boy  had  not  yet  gone  back  to  his  old 
gang,  and  he  had  been  home  so  long  she  had  begun  to  lose  her 
fear  that  he  would  rejoin  the  old  companions  who  had  been  in 
part,  at  least,  responsible  for  "his  trouble."  One  mother  said 
that  the  Parental  School  was  a  fine  place  for  boys  because 
"they'll  do  there  what  they  won't  do  at  home";  another 
explained  that  her  boy  used  to  "chase  the  streets,  and  someone 
had  to  go  out  at  night  and  hunt  him"  before  he  was  sent  away, 
but  after  he  came  home  from  the  Parental  School  he  "stayed 
at  home  evenings  and  was  nice  about  the  house."  Even  the 
briefer  expressions  of  appreciation  such  as  "Oh,  he  learned 
a  lot"  or  "He  minds  better  now,"  which  were  so  common,  were 
significant. 

The  fact  that  out  of  nearly  three  hundred  "Parental  School 
mothers"  who  were  interviewed,  not  one  had  anything  but 
kindly  appreciation  of  the  school's  work  and  influence  is  an 
unusual  tribute  to  the  fine  work  which  is  being  done  there. 

In  many  cities  the  formation  of  special  "truant  rooms"  has 
been  adopted  as  another  method  of  dealing  with  certain  types 
of  truant  boys.  In  Chicago  the  first  experiment  of  this  kind 
was  the  fitting-out  of  a  room  at  the  Jenner  School  with  work 
benches  and  other  facilities  for  handwork  and  with  twenty- 
four  desks  for  study.  A  teacher  especially  adapted  for  dealing 


THE  PARENTAL  SCHOOL  173 

with  difficult  and  unruly  boys  was  placed  in  charge,  and  twenty- 
four  boys  from  various  schools  were  sent  back  to  their  homes 
by  the  judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court,  but  with  the  understanding 
that  they  were  to  go  to  this  truant  room  instead  of  to  their  old 
places  in  school.  In  discussing  the  experiment,  a  recent  report 
of  the  Board  of  Education  said,  "For  the  first  time  the  boys 
became  conscious  of  the  power  of  the  state  to  control  their 
actions;  they  lived  at  home  and  were  all  anxious  to  return  to 
their  own  schools,  which  they  could  do  after  several  months  of 
approved  good  behavior." 

This  first  truant  room  in  Chicago  was  established  eight 
years  ago,  and  eleven  other  such  rooms  have  since  been  opened. 
In  so  far  as  the  truant  room  is  used  as  a  substitute  for  com- 
mitment to  the  Parental  School,  a  very  considerable  economy 
is  effected,  since  obviously  the  cost  of  the  maintenance  of  the 
children  at  the  Parental  School  is  very  high  compared  with  the 
cost  of  educating  the  child  coming  from  his  own  home  to  the  ordi- 
nary sessions  of  the  day  schools.  On  the  other  hand  it 
should  be  remembered  that  the  use  of  the  truant  rooms  must  be 
definitely  restricted  to  the  boys  who  come  from  homes  where 
the  conditions  are  favorable  and  that  the  boy  whose  greatest 
need  is  to  be  taken  out  of  an  unfavorable  or  demoralizing  home 
environment  cannot  be  helped  by  a  transfer  to  a  truant  room. 

Table  XX  shows  the  estimated  average  per  capita  cost  of 
the  Parental  School  children  as  compared  with  the  average  cost 
of  the  children  in  the  regular  grades.  The  per  capita  cost  in 
the  "truant  room"  is  of  course  higher  than  the  average  per 
capita  cost  as  given  below. 

The  difference  between  the  per  capita  cost  in  the  Parental 
School  and  in  the  elementary  school  is  very  great,  and  it  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  explain  that  this  difference  pays  for 
the  support  of  the  child,  except  for  the  clothing  which  the 
parents  are  required  to  furnish,  as  well  as  for  his  schooling,  and 
that  this  support  is  on  a  level  of  decency  and  comfort  that  is 


174     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


TABLE  XX 

COST  OF  MAINTENANCE  AND  PER  CAPITA  COST  IN  THE  CHICAGO  PARENTAL 

SCHOOL,  1902-14,  COMPARED  WITH  AVERAGE  PER  CAPITA  COST 

IN  THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS 

(Compiled  from  Annual  Reports  of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education.) 


Year 

Parental  School 
Total  Cost  of 
Maintenance 

Parental  School 
Average 
Membership 

Parental  School 
Annual  per 
Capita  Cost 

Average  Cost 
per  Capita  in 
Chicago  Ele- 
mentary Schools 

IQOI—    2  

$37,223.46 

87 

$427  8<; 

$27  02 

IQO2-    3.  . 

60,161  96 

IC4 

3QO    66 

26   31 

I  QO3—   4.  . 

60,777  80 

1  88 

371    1^ 

28   16 

IOO4—    S 

73,  I<;Q  6? 

208 

3^1    73 

27  8=; 

1905—  6  

78,81  5.34 

212 

371  .  77 

27.  =;7 

1906—  7  

77,7-36.84 

217 

3^6.30 

2O   44 

1907—  8  

8O,6O2.  72 

2?3 

318  <;8 

28  84 

1008—  o.  . 

87,44.8   73 

263 

332   62 

32   60 

IQOQ—  IO.  . 

86,818  51 

208 

291    82 

32    77 

I9IO-II  

89,812  02 

2Q3 

206   7O 

34  4O 

I9II—I2     

8o.?2I    20 

313 

2C7    CO 

-2C      H 

IQI2-I3.  . 

QI.I41  .  70 

322 

270.60 

36.62 

IQI3-I4.  . 

00,347.  17 

313 

288  .  46 

37.  QO 

vastly  superior  to  the  standard  maintained  in  the  homes  from 
which  the  majority  of  the  children  come.  For  example,  each 
boy  has,  as  one  mother  put  it,  "a  little  white  bed  all  to  him- 
self." It  also  pays  for  a  longer  period  of  instruction,  since  the 
per  capita  cost  for  the  Parental  School  is  based  on  membership 
for  twelve  months,  while  the  ordinary  day  school  lasts  less  than 
ten.  And  there  are  additional  and  costly  features  of  manual 
and  agricultural  training  in  the  Parental  School  to  which  refer- 
ence has  already  been  made. 

Two  points  should  be  made  in  this  connection.  The  first 
is  that  treatment  in  the  Parental  School  is  too  costly,  both  in 
pain  of  enforced  separation  to  the  parents  and  children  and  in 
dollars  and  cents  to  the  city,  to  be  used  for  cases  that  could  be 
handled  successfully  in  other  ways.  If  an  agency  could  be 
developed  by  which  the  home  could  be  so  dealt  with  as  to  do 


THE  PARENTAL  SCHOOL 


175 


away  with  causes  of  the  child's  irregularity,  and  so  reduce  the 
number  of  boys  committed  and  recommitted  to  the  Parental 
School,  it  might  pay  for  itself.  It  is  admitted,  however,  that 
a  skilful  agency  of  the  kind  referred  to  would  probably  discover 
many  more  cases  than  are  known  today  for  whose  treatment 
the  aid  of  the  court  and  of  the  Parental  School  would  be  invoked. 
And  the  second  point  is  that  when  an  institution  can  render 
such  efficient  and  valuable  service  to  children  in  need  of  such 
care,  it  is  most  unjust  that  any  who  are  in  need  should  fail  to 
benefit.  This  injustice  is  most  flagrant  in  the  case  of  girl 
truants.  Attention  is  called  elsewhere  to  the  difference  between 
the  non-attending  boy  who  becomes  a  nuisance  and  the  non- 
attending  girl  who  may  be  a  drudge  or  who  may  in  fact  be  the 
victim  of  demoralizing  experiences  while  she  is  out  of  school. 

Obviously,  however,  the  failure  to  receive  the  benefits  of 
the  school  intended  for  her  are  as  serious  in  the  case  of  the  girl 
as  of  the  boy,  if  not  more  serious.  Table  XXI,  which  has  been 
compiled  from  the  reports  of  the  Superintendent  of  Compulsory 
Education,  shows  that  he  has  had  to  serve  notices  in  the  cases 

TABLE  XXI 

NUMBER  AND  SEX  OF  TRUANTS  DEALT  WITH  BY 
THE  CHICAGO  DEPARTMENT  OF  COM- 
PULSORY EDUCATION,  1906-14 


Year  Ending 
June  30 

Number 
Boys 

Number 
Girls 

Total 

1006.  . 

4,71:0 

ICI 

4,901 

IQO7  .  . 

3.OO4 

266 

3,270 

1008  .  . 

3,204 

IIQ 

3,413 

IQOQ 

2,042 

112 

3,  0^4 

IQIO.  . 

3,482 

132 

3,614 

IQII  .  . 

4,086 

144 

4,230 

IQI2  .  . 

3,6i;i 

ICO 

3,  80  1 

IQI3 

2,C77 

2IO 

3,787 

IIH4- 

2,241 

i?8 

7.7QO 

Total.  .  .  . 

32,027 

1,442 

33,469 

176     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

of  nearly  1,500  girls  during  the  years  1906-14.  Although, 
according  to  this  table,  nearly  1,500  girls  or  their  parents  have 
been  "warned"  concerning  the  compulsory  attendance  law, 
only  37 'girls  have  been  brought  into  the  Juvenile  Court.1 
Moreover,  since  there  is  no  cottage  for  girls  at  the  Parental 
School,  it  is  useless  to  bring  them  before  the  court,  as  there  is 
no  opportunity  for  commitment  and  a  reproof  is  of  little  effect. 
In  an  earlier  study  of  the  wards  of  the  Juvenile  Court,2  attention 
was  called  to  the  illiterate  condition  of  girls  brought  into  court 
as  delinquent.  Emphasis  was  then  expressly  laid  on  the  fact 
that  more  perfect  rather  than  less  perfect  machinery  is  needed 
for  dealing  with  truant  girls  than  for  dealing  with  truant  boys, 
because  there  is  the  greater  temptation  to  exploit  them  in  the 
home  and  because  it  was  found  that  the  delinquent  illiterate 
girls  come  from  poorer  homes  than  those  from  which  the 
boys  come.  The  superintendent  of  compulsory  education  had 
already  called  attention  in  1907  to  the  increase  in  the  number 
of  truant  girls  and  of  delinquent  girls.  Now,  as  then,  however, 
so  far  as  the  advantages  of  the  Parental  School  are  concerned, 
the  girl  is  wholly  neglected,  and,  except  so  far  as  prosecutions 
in  the  Municipal  Court  may  bring  pressure  to  bear  on  a  certain 
group  of  parents,3  the  truant  girl  is  uncared  for  until  she  comes 
before  the  Juvenile  Court  as  delinquent. 

1  See  chap,  x,  Table  XII. 

3  The  Delinquent  Child  and  the  Home,  pp.  143-45. 
3  See  chap,  xiv,  "Enforcement  of  the  Compulsory  Education  Law  in  the 
Municipal  Court,"  p.  205. 


CHAPTER  XII 

TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  RELATION  TO  MENTAL 
AND  PHYSICAL  DEFECTS  OF  SCHOOL  CHILDREN 

Because  a  certain  minimum  of  education  is  essential,  the 
school  authorities  are  required  to  secure  the  attendance  of  all  the 
children  within  the  age  limits  fixed  by  the  statute.  Progressive 
school  authorities,  however,  go  beyond  this  and  undertake  to 
do  whatever  must  be  done  not  only  to  secure  the  attendance 
of  the  child,  but  to  see  that  he  is  in  condition  to  profit  by  his 
work  when  he  is  there.  The  underlying  principle  here  is  that 
of  prevention — the  prevention  of  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
weakness  or  deterioration — the  prevention,  in  the  case  of 
the  problem  under  discussion,  of  truancy  and  non-attendance 
rather  than  the  application  of  disciplinary  methods  to  these 
problems.  An  illustration  of  such  preventive  work  is  to  be 
found  in  the  development  of  the  school  medical  and  nursing 
services. 

The  volume  of  absence  due  to  sickness,  preventable  or 
inevitable,  is  of  course  very  great.  The  lowering  of  the  vitality 
and  capacity  of  the  children  by  physical  and  nervous  defects 
is  also  symptomatic  of  serious  educational  loss.  In  the  year 
1909,  for  example,  the  Chicago  Health  Department  examined 
647,842  school  children  for  the  prevention  of  the  spread  of 
contagious  diseases.  As  a  result  of  this  examination  it  was 
found  necessary  to  exclude  15,618  children  from  school  as  a  pre- 
ventive measure  against  the  spread  of  contagion.  Moreover, 
123,897  children  were  given  complete  physical  examinations 
and  of  these,  63,199,  or  in  round  numbers  more  than  50  per 
cent,  were  found  to  have  such  physical  defects  as  defective 
teeth,  44,483;  bad  tonsils,  27,556;  impaired  vision,  21,824; 

177 


178     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

anaemia,  3,606;  poor  nutrition,  2,983;  skin  diseases,  2,593; 
impaired  hearing,  2,830;  and  orthopedic  defects,  1,433.' 

More  recently,  during  the  year  1915,  the  Chicago  Health 
Department  made  1,128,232  inspections  of  school  children 
beside  79,383  physical  examinations.  As  a  result  of  the  inspec- 
tions 21,730  children  were  excluded  from  school;  as  a  result  of  the 
physical  examinations  37,356  children,  or  again  nearly  50  per 
cent,  were  found  to  suffer  from  physical  defects,  and  32,860  cases 
were  referred  to  the  school  nurses.  They,  in  turn,  made  1,316 
calls  at  the  homes,  and  took  or  sent  more  than  twenty  thousand 
children  to  dispensaries  or  other  agencies  for  treatment.2  The 
social  waste  that  has  been  prevented  through  the  installation 
of  the  school  medical  and  nursing  service  is  incalculable,  and 
there  is  every  reason  to  hope  for  the  further  development  of 
these  important  social  agencies. 

No  adequate  discussion  of  the  subject  of  medical  inspection 
and  of  the  school  nursing  service  can  be  undertaken  here.  The 
importance  of  medical  inspection  not  only  for  the  purpose  of 
preventing  epidemics,  but  for  the  purpose  of  discovering  physical 
defects  that  may  be  removed  or  lessened,  is  generally  recognized 
and  is  the  subject  of  an  extensive  and  rapidly  increasing  body 
of  literature.3  The  importance  of  medical  examination  of  those 
who  leave  school  to  go  to  work,  in  order  that  a  minimum  of 

1  See  Bulletin  of  the  Chicago  School  of  Sanitary  Instruction,  November 
15, 1913,  in  which  may  be  found  a  summary  of  the  work  of  medical  inspection 
of  school  children  for  several  years. 

3  See  Bulletin  of  the  Chicago  School  of  Sanitary  Instruction,  February  5, 
1916.  The  Division  of  Child  Hygiene  was  constituted  in  1915  as  follows: 
school  health  officers,  106;  supervising  health  officers,  18;  field  nurses,  92; 
supervising  field  nurses,  6;  superintendent  of  nurses,  i;  dental  surgeons, 
10;  supervising  dentist,  i;  ophthalmologist,  i;  infant  welfare  physicians, 
3;  infant  welfare  nurses>  3;  station  attendants,  3. 

3  See,  for  example,  W.  S.  Cornell,  Health  and  Medical  Inspection  of 
School  Children  (Philadelphia,  1912);  L.  H.  Gulick  and  L.  P.  Ayres, 
Medical  Inspection  of  Schools  (New  York,  1913);  L.  D.  Cruickshank  and 


MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  DEFECTS  179 

physical  development  may  be  assured,  hardly  needs  emphasis. 
The  working  child,  however,  is  discussed  in  a  later  chapter. 

When  the  numbers  of  defective  and  sick  children  are  so 
great,  it  is  easy  to  think  only  of  the  loss  of  school  opportunity 
connected  with  physical  incapacity.  In  the  very  volume  of 
the  inevitable  loss,  however,  is  to  be  found  the  reason  for 
reducing  to  a  minimum  the  preventable  absences.  That  sick* 
ness  is  responsible  for  a  very  great  deal  of  non-attendance  is 
well  known,  and  further  information  on  this  point  was  con- 
tributed recently  by  the  Chicago  Health  Department.  A  study 
of  school  absentees  was  made  by  the  Health  Department  in 
the  winter  of  1915-16  during  the  prevalence  of  an  epidemic  of 
grip,  when  there  was  likewise  danger  from  scarlet  fever.  During 
the  four  days  preceding  the  Christmas,  1915,  recess,  6,407 
calls  were  made  at  the  homes  of  absent  children  and  the 
causes  of  their  absence  are  grouped  in  Table  XXII. 

TABLE    XXII 
PERCENTAGE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  CAUSES  OF  ABSENCE 

(Compiled  From  Bulletin  of  Chicago  School  of  Sanitary  Instruction, 
February  5,  1916,  p.  29.) 

Absent  because  of  illness 61 

"Respiratory  diseases" 47 

"Other  severe  conditions" 3 

"Vaccination" 2 

"Contagious  diseases" 4 

"  Indisposition  " 5 

Absence  from  miscellaneous  causes 39 


Total 100 

L.  W.  Mackenzie,  School  Clinics  at  Home  and  Abroad  (London,  1913); 
T.  N.  Kelynack,  Medical  Examination  of  Schools  and  Scholars  (London, 
1910);  L.  W.  Mackenzie  and  E.  Matthew,  The  Medical  Inspection  of  School 
Children  (Edinburgh,  1904);  Great  Britain,  Annual  Reports  of  the  Chief 
Medical  Officer  of  the  Board  of  Education  (especially  1910). 


i8o     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

According  to  this  table,  the  Health  Department  nurses 
found  the  absence  of  61  per  cent  of  the  children  due  to  illness. 
The  remaining  39  per  cent  were  absent  for  various  causes,  such 
as  "no  clothing,"  ''truancy,"  or  because  the  nurse  reported 
"wrong  address,"  or  "not  at  home." 

It  seems  scarcely  necessary  to  develop  arguments  in  favor 
of  the  support  of  an  adequate  medical  and  nursing  staff.  When 
millions  of  dollars  are  being  spent  each  year  on  educational 
facilities,  it  is  of  course  an  elementary  economy  to  prevent  the 
waste  of  these  facilities  through  preventable  absences  or  because 
the  children  who  attend  are  not  in  fit  condition  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  opportunities  offered  them. 

The  importance  of  discovering  mental  defects  by  prompt 
and  adequate  examination  and  of  securing  proper  methods  of 
instruction  for  mentally  deficient  children  is  another  aspect  of 
the  prevention  of  social  waste  that  cannot  be  treated  in  this 
volume.1  In  this  connection,  however,  some  facts  relating 
to  the  relation  between  truancy  and  retardation2  taken  from 
the  records  of  the  truant  boys  brought  into  the  Juvenile  Court 
become  of  interest.  It  is  generally  agreed  that  absence,  whether 
preventable  or  not,  because  it  disturbs  the  child's  relation  to 
his  school  work,  leads  often  to  truancy,  as  well  as  to  retardation. 

1  There  is  an  increasing  body  of  literature  dealing  with  this  subject.    See, 
for  example,  W.  E.  Fernald,  Importance  of  the  Early  Discovery  and  Treatment 
of  Defectives  in  Public  School  Classes  (Philadelphia,  1906);    C.  P.  Lapage, 
Feeblemindedness  in  Children  of  School   Age  (Manchester,  1911);    G.  E. 
Shuttleworth  and  W.  A.  Potts,  Mentally  Deficient  Children  (Philadelphia, 
1910);  A.  F.  Tredgold,  Mental  Deficiency  (New  York,  1912);   A.  Holmes, 
Conservation  of  the  Child   (Philadelphia,   1912);    W.  H.  Holmes,  School 
Organization  and  the  Individual  Child  (Worcester,  Mass.,   1912);   T.   N. 
Kelynack,  Defective  Children  (London,  1915). 

2  On  this  subject,  which  we  cannot  discuss  at  length  here,  see,  for 
example,  L.  P.  Ayres,  Laggards  in  Our  Schools  (New  York,  1909);  L.  B.  Blan, 
Special  Study  of  the  Incidence  of  Retardation  (New  York,  1911);  L.  Witmer, 
The  Special  Class  for  Backward  Children  (Philadelphia,  1911). 


MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  DEFECTS 


181 


In  studying  the  Juvenile  Court  records  of  truant  boys  in  Chicago 
it  was  possible  to  compare  the  ages  and  the  grades  of  the  boys 
brought  into  court,  and  Table  XXIII  has  therefore  been  pre- 
pared showing  the  ages  of  the  boys  brought  in  during  the  two 
years  1909-10  and  1910-11,  together  with  the  grades  last 
attended.  A  comparison  between  the  ages  and  the  grades  in 
this  table  makes  it  possible,  of  course,  to  ascertain  how  far 
these  boys  were  making  normal  progress  in  school. 

TABLE  XXIII 

AGE  AND  GRADE  or  TRUANT  BOYS  BROUGHT  INTO  COURT  BETWEEN 
JULY  i,  1909,  AND  JUNE  30,  1911* 


AGE 

SUB- 
NORMAL 
ROOMS 

GRADE 

TOTAL 

ISt 

2d 

3d 

4th 

5th 

6th 

7th 

8th 

7  years  .  . 
8  years  .  . 

15 
ii 

9 
13 
6 

22 

5 
39 
85 
151 
217 

319 

274 

2 

4 

37 

9  years  .  . 

26 

33 

23 
24 

8 

6 

33 
75 
97 
69 

I 

12 

89 
70 

I 

10  years.  . 

62 
64 
56 
45 

1  1  years  .  . 
1  2  years  .  . 
13  years.  . 
14  years.  . 

2 

3 

I 

jL 

53 

7 
19 

3 

I 

Total.  . 

6 

70 

138 

268 

280 

209 

90 

27 

4 

I,O92 

*Data  from  court  records.  These  are  boys  brought  into  court  for  the  first  time  as 
truants.  They  may  have  been  in  before  as  delinquents  or  dependents.  The  total  number  of 
cases  in  the  table  is  1,092  instead  of  1,110,  because  the  records,  although  giving  the  ages 
failed  to  give  the  grades  in  eighteen  cases. 


The  table  shows  that  although  only  6  of  these  boys  had 
been  placed  in  the  subnormal  or  ungraded  rooms,  the  great 
majority  were  not  so  far  advanced  in  school  as  normal  children 
who  had  attended  school  regularly  should  have  been.  A  normal 
child  who  entered  school  at  the  age  of  seven,  as  required  by  the 


182     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

compulsory  education  law,  would  have  passed  out  of  the  first 
grade  and  into  the  second  at  the  age  of  eight;  he  would  have 
been  in  the  third  grade  at  nine,  the  fourth  grade  at  ten,  and  so 
on.  In  Table  XXIII,  showing  age  and  grade,  the  heavy  zig- 
zag line  divides  the  boys  making  reasonable  progress  in  school 
from  those  who  are  below  the  standard  demanded  of  normal 
boys  at  the  corresponding  ages.  All  the  numbers  below  the 
heavy  black  line  represent  retarded  children,  67  boys 
from  eight  to  thirteen  years  of  age  still  in  the  first  grade, 
114  boys  from  nine  to  thirteen  still  in  the  second  grade, 
227  boys  from  ten  to  thirteen  still  in  the  third  grade,  241 
boys  from  eleven  to  thirteen  still  in  the  fourth  grade,  160 
twelve-  and  thirteen-year-old  boys  in  the  fifth  grade,  and  53 
thirteen-year-old  boys  in  the  sixth  grade — a  total  of  868 
retarded,  or  80  per  cent  of  all  the  boys  brought  into  court 
by  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education  during  the  years 
1909-11.  Of  the  thirteen-year-old  boys,  i  was  in  the  sub- 
normal room,  6  were  in  the  first  grade,  8  were  in  the 
second  grade,  45  in  the  sixth  grade;  only  22  of  these  boys  were 
above  the  sixth  grade  where  the  normal  thirteen-year-old  boy 
belongs. 

The  relation  between  truancy  and  retardation  was  recognized 
as  being  a  very  close  one  by  the  members  of  the  New  York 
School  Inquiry  Commission,  who,  in  discussing  the  subject  of 
non-promotion,  reported  that  irregular  attendance  was  "a 
decided  factor  in  increasing  the  number  of  non-promotions," 
and  pointed  out  that  since  absence  was  "a  very  large  factor 
in  increasing  the  number  of  non-promotions  and  hence  in 
increasing  congestion,  the  corresponding  responsibility  of  all 
concerned  to  get  children  into  school  and  to  keep  them  there 
is  therefore  clear." 

The  educational  expert  employed  by  this  commission  to 
investigate  "promotion,  non-promotion  and  part-time"  reported 
on  the  basis  of  a  careful  statistical  investigation  that  in  all 


MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  DEFECTS  183 

grades,  the  rate  of  promotion  varied  inversely  with  the  amount 
of  absence.1 

On  the  subject  of  the  physical  condition  and  mental  develop- 
ment of  truant  boys,  on  which  the  regularity  of  their  attendance 
and  their  conduct  and  progress  in  school  would  in  part  depend, 
certain  facts  are  to  be  found  in  the  records  of  the  Department 
of  Child-Study  and  of  the  Parental  School.  The  records  of 
the  Department  of  Child-Study  are  available,  for  example,  in  the 
cases  of  456  out  of  473  boys  committed  to  the  Parental  School 
in  1900-10,  and  show  that,  according  to  the  tests  given  by 
that  department,  65,  or  15  per  cent  of  the  boys,  were  well 
endowed;  38,  or  9  per  cent  of  them,  were  classified  as  bright; 
and  155,  or  36  per  cent  were  normal;  that  is  60  per  cent  of 
the  whole  number  were  mentally  normal;  on  the  other  hand, 
37,  or  8  per  cent,  were  considered  degenerate;  61  others,  or  14 
per  cent,  were  below  normal;  and  79,  or  18  per  cent,  were  the 
victims  of  nervous  defects,  making  a  total  of  40  per  cent  that 
could  not  be  called  normal. 

But  in  the  judgment  of  the  department  106  of  those  who 
were  mentally  normal  or  above  normal  were  in  bad  physical 
condition,  while  109  others  suffered  from  both  physical  and 

1  Some  of  the  conclusions  bearing  on  this  point  are  so  pertinent  that 
they  may  be  quoted  at  length: 

"  (3)  The  amount  of  absence  in  all  grades  is  large;  whether  it  cannot 
be  greatly  reduced  is  a  question  worthy  of  immediate  and  earnest 
attention. 

"(4)  With  the  exception  of  the  IA  grade,  absence  affected  more 
seriously  the  rate  of  promotion  hi  the  higher  than  in  the  lower  grades;  and 
in  all  grades,  the  rate  of  promotion  varies  inversely  with  the  amount  of 
absence. 

"  (5)  Absence  is  a  very  large  factor  in  increasing  the  number  of 
non-promotions  and  hence  in  increasing  congestion. 

"  (6)  In  view  of  the  effect  of  absence  on  the  child's  progress  through 
the  school,  the  first  duty  of  teachers  and  principals  should  be  to  keep 
children  regular  in  attendance,  and  the  corresponding  responsibility  of  the 
department  of  school  attendance  is,  therefore,  very  great." — Report  of  the 
New  York  School  Inquiry  Commission,  Vol.  I,  p.  618. 


1 84     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


mental  or  nervous  defects.  In  other  words,  only  152,  or  35 
per  cent,  were  in  the  judgment  of  the  department  both  normal 
mentally  and  in  "fair"  physical  condition. 

TABLE  XXIV 

PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL  CONDITION  OF  BOYS  COMMITTED  TO  CHICAGO 

PARENTAL  SCHOOL,  1909-10 
(From  reports  of  the  Department  of  Child-Study) 


MENTAL  CONDITION 

PHYSICAL  CONDITION 

Good 

Fair 

Bad 

Total 

Percent- 
age 

Well  endowed  

2O 
3 
39 
4 
4 
5 

23 
14 
S3 
17 
13 
25 

22 
21 

63 
40 
2O 

49 

65 
38 
I5S 
61 

37 
79 

15 
9 
36 
14 
8 
18 

Bright  

Normal   

Below  normal  

Degenerate   

Nervous  defects  only  

Total  

75 

2 

145 
10 

2iS 
9 

435 

21 

IOO 

No  report  on  mental"  condition  

Total  

77 

155 

224 

456 

The  precise  nature  of  the  physical  disability  from  which  the 
boys  suffered  is  a  matter  of  great  interest.  Further  information 
furnished  by  the  records  showed  that  the  largest  number,  158, 
or  35  per  cent,  out  of  456  boys  examined,  were  said  to  be  either 
undernourished  or  lacking  in  vitality,  or  both  undernourished 
and  lacking  in  vitality.1  The  other  children  with  physical 
defects  suffered  chiefly  from  bad  tonsils  and  adenoids,  defective 
vision,  defective  hearing,  bad  teeth,  or,  in  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  cases,  from  a  combination  of  these  defects. 

Obviously,  then,  a  study  of  the  Parental  School  boys  shows 
that  in  their  cases  physical  defects  had  not  been  discovered 

1  The  following  list  covers  the  specific  defects  enumerated.  This  list 
shows  only  85  children  "lacking  vitality,"  "undernourished,"  etc.,  but  in 


MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  DEFECTS  185 

before  they  were  brought  into  court,  and  that  they  represent 
numbers  of  children  who  escape  the  notice  of  the  school  doctor, 
or  are  not  treated  by  the  doctor,  perhaps  because  their  absence 
from  school  is  not  promptly  followed  up. 

For  example,  a  boy  who  was  one  of  nine  children  and  in  the 
sixth  grade  was  brought  into  court  when  thirteen,  charged  with 
violation  of  rules  and  misconduct  on  the  street.  He  was  found 
to  be  suffering  from  adenoids  and  enlarged  tonsils  and  from 
partial  deafness  due  to  scarlet  fever  in  infancy.  He  was  also 
undernourished,  as  he  had  been  getting  his  own  meals  at  home. 
The  boy's  mother  had  supported  the  family  by  working  away 
from  home  because  the  father  was  a  worthless  drunkard.  The 
fact  that  the  father  had  always  been  very  abusive  at  home  and 
was  at  one  time  arrested  for  beating  and  ill-treating  his  children 
is  also  significant.  In  this  case  the  boy  improved  greatly 
during  the  four  months  that  he  spent  at  the  Parental  School, 
and  was  at  work  and  "doing  well"  when  visited  by  the  investi- 
gator. 

In  many  cases  mental  deficiency  seems  to  be  connected  with 
truancy.  For  example,  an  Italian  boy  who  was  brought  into 
court  and  committed  to  the  Parental  School  at  the  age  of 
thirteen  seemed  to  be  mentally  deficient.  For  three  years  he 

73  other  cases  this  condition  was  combined  with  some  specific  defect.  In 
the  list  given,  the  more  general  statements  regarding  physical  condition 
are  given  only  in  the  absence  of  specific  defects. 

Adenoids  or  bad  tonsils  or  both 80 

Poor  vision  (31),  or  defective  hearing  (5),  or  bad 

teeth  (22) 58 

Poor  vision,  hearing,  or  teeth  combined,  or  com- 
bined with  adenoids  or  tonsils 38 

Lacking  vitality,  undernourished,  or  both 85 

General  physical  condition  bad 64 

General  physical  condition  fair 67 

General  physical  condition  good 64 

Total  number  of  boys  examined 456 


1 86     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

remained  in  the  first  grade  of  the  public  school,  for  two  years 
in  the  second,  and  was  promoted  to  the  third  only  on  account 
of  his  age  and  his  size.  Finally  he  was  put  in  the  subnormal 
room.  He  was  not  vicious,  but  was  a  constant  source  of  annoy- 
ance. He  interfered  with  the  children  about  him,  pulling  their 
hair  and  pushing  their  things  on  to  the  floor.  When  reproved, 
he  sat  perfectly  still  "like  a  mule,"  the  investigator  was  told. 
The  only  thing  that  he  enjoyed  was  going  about  with  his  father, 
who  was  a  peddler,  and  then  describing  all  the  things  he  had 
seen.  When  he  stayed  away  from  school  he  was  believed  to 
go  with  his  father.  He  was  very  fat  and  overdeveloped,  but 
his  sight,  speech,  and  hearing  were  perfect.  During  the 
year  that  he  was  twelve  years  old  he  was  absent  fifty  times. 
When  he  was  thirteen,  he  ran  away  from  the  subnormal 
room,  was  brought  into  court,  and  sent  to  the  Chicago 
Parental  School,  where  he  remained  for  six  months,  until  he 
was  fourteen. 

A  somewhat  similar  case  was  that  of  a  Polish  boy  who  had 
been  brought  into  court  "off  the  streets" — aged  thirteen  and 
unable  to  read — and  sent  to  the  Parental  School.  Upon  investi- 
gation it  appeared  that  he  had  been  in  school  for  two  and  one- 
half  months  that  year,  but  had  been  absent  twenty-seven  days 
during  that  time.  The  home,  which  was  visited,  was  in  charge 
of  a  sister,  as  the  mother  had  been  a  paralyzed  invalid  for  more 
than  ten  years.  The  father,  a  cement-layer,  and  the  sister 
both  said  that  the  boy  was  "no  good."  They  said  that  he  had 
always  been  an  abnormally  bashful  boy  and  was  afraid  to  speak 
out  loud  for  fear  children  would  laugh  at  him.  He  had  never 
been  able  to  learn  to  read  or  to  write.  The  father  said  that 
he  hoped  that  the  investigator  had  come  to  put  the  boy  in  some 
institution  since  he  did  not  feel  able  to  care  for  him.  He  has 
been  in  court  twice  as  delinquent  since  leaving  the  Parental 
School:  once  for  stealing  old  iron  from  the  railroad,  and 
once  for  "bumming"  with  a  gang,  one  of  whom  carried 


MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  DEFECTS  187 

a  loaded  revolver.  The  boy,  according  to  the  father, 
"does  not  want  to  work,  and  no  one  would  have  him  if 
he  did." 

There  were  also  several  cases  of  "repeaters,"  i.e.,  boys  who 
were  sent  back  to  the  Parental  School  for  violation  of  parole, 
who  seemed  to  be  mentally  defective  boys.  An  Italian  boy 
was  described  as  "stupid,  ill-tempered,  and  lazy."  He  "loved 
the  streets"  and  used  frequently  to  lie  to  his  mother,  telling 
her  that  there  was  no  school  or  that  the  teacher  had  gone  away. 
When  twelve  years  old,  he  was  still  in  the  third  grade  of  the 
public  school.  He  was  brought  into  court  as  a  truant  and  a 
schoolroom  incorrigible,  and  was  committed  to  the  Parental 
School.  After  eight  months  he  was  paroled,  but  violated  his 
parole,  and  was  returned  within  seven  months.  This  time  he 
remained  three  months,  and  was  finally  discharged  because  he 
had  reached  the  age  limit.  In  the  year  since  his  release  he  has 
held  four  different  jobs  as  messenger  boy. 

A  somewhat  similar  case  was  that  of  a  Russian  boy  who 
was  one  of  nine  children.  The  family  of  eleven  lived  in  a  very 
crowded  four-room  apartment.  The  mother  was  untidy  and 
shiftless,  and  the  whole  family  nervous  and  excitable.  This 
boy  was  brought  into  court  when  only  nine  years  old  for  habitual 
truancy  and  violation  of  the  rules.  He  rode  about  on  wagons 
instead  of  coming  to  school ;  he  fought  his  parents,  and  became 
hysterical  when  they  attempted  to  control  him.  The  mother 
said  that  it  made  him  so  nervous  to  climb  the  many  stairs 
at  the  school  that  she  was  glad  to  have  him  sent  away. 
He  was  committed  to  the  Parental  School,  where  he  stayed 
five  months.  He  has  twice  been  released  on  parole,  and  twice 
returned. 

A  visiting  teacher  or  social  worker  connected  with  the  school, 
who  could  follow  up  the  cases  of  absence  like  these,  endeavor 
to  find  the  right  kind  of  treatment  for  the  children,  and  persuade 
the  parents  to  allow  the  necessary  treatment,  would  greatly 


1 88     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

add  to  the  efficiency  of  the  mental  or  physical  examination  and 
perhaps  stimulate  the  school  system  to  make  better  provision 
for  the  subnormal  child.1 

1  In  her  report  for  1913-14,  p.  370,  Mrs.  Ella  Flagg  Young,  super- 
intendent, recommended  among  other  things  an  increase  in  the  number  of 
subnormal  rooms.  "It  is  readily  seen,"  her  report  says,  "that  forty-six 
rooms  is  not  a  sufficient  number  to  provide  for  this  class  of  pupils.  We 
therefore  urge  that  the  number  of  divisions  be  materially  increased." 


CHAPTER  XIII 

TRUANCY  IN  RELATION  TO  DEPENDENCY  AND 
DELINQUENCY 

The  preceding  chapters  have  made  it  clear  that  the  public 
school  in  the  great  American  city  of  today  touches  every  social 
problem — the  non-supporting  father,  the  tubercular  mother,  the 
degraded  home,  and  all  the  harrassing  difficulties  that  poverty 
brings  into  crowded  houses  in  crowded  city  neighborhoods. 
Wherever  conditions  are  unfavorable  to  child  life,  the  schools 
suffer  from  non-attendance,  truancy,  and  the  violation  of  school 
rules,  which  come  with  the  presence  in  school  of  children  from 
extremely  poor,  undisciplined,  or  neglected  homes.  Large 
numbers  of  children  in  the  poorer  districts  of  the  city  are  in  need 
of  medical  attention,  are  insufficiently  clad,  and  are  improperly 
fed  or  underfed;  and  many  of  these  will  be  troublesome  in 
school.  Many  others  suffer  from  various  physical  discomforts 
and  find  the  prospect  of  drifting  idly  and  listlessly  about  the 
streets  and  alleys,  instead  of  being  subjected  to  the  discipline 
of  school,  a  temptation  impossible  to  resist.  A  study  of  the 
homes  from  which  the  Parental  School  boys  come  makes  it 
clear  that  the  conditions  which  are  producing  these  truant  and 
incorrigible  boys  are  conditions  which  also  make  for  dependency 
and  delinquency. 

The  fact  that  truancy,  dependency,  and  delinquency  are 
the  common  results  of  such  home  conditions  as  have  been 
described  is  suggested  by  the  number  of  truant  boys  who, 
before  being  brought  into  court  as  truants,  have  already  been 
in  institutions  for  delinquent  or  dependent  children.  For 
example,  as  Table  XXV  shows,  of  the  473  boys  brought  into 

189 


1 90     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


court  by  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education  in  a  single 
year,  54  had  been  in  court  at  an  earlier  date  as  dependent  and 
112  had  been  before  the  court  as  delinquent.  Some  of  these 
cases  were  "continued"  in  order  that  a  "truant"  petition 
might  be  filed,  because  the  boys  were  not  seriously  enough 
delinquent  to  make  it  wise  to  commit  them  to  a  delinquent 
institution  or  because  there  was  no  dependent  institution  to 

TABLE  XXV 

NUMBER  OF  TRUANT  BOYS  BROUGHT  INTO  COURT  DUR- 
ING A  SINGLE  YEAR  WITH  PREVIOUS  RECORDS  OF 
DEPENDENCY  OR  DELINQUENCY,  TOGETHER  WITH 
DISPOSITION  ON  FIRST  CHARGE* 


Disposition 

Dependent 

Delinquent 

Commitment: 
St.  Mary's  (Feehanville)  

23 

Glen  wood  

7 

Other  institutions  for  depend- 
ents   

2 

John  Worthy  School  

13 

St.  Charles  

2 

Paroled  

14 

C2 

Continued  

3 

•2Q 

Dismissed  

2 

3 

No  record  of  disposition  

? 

7 

Total  

«4. 

112 

*The  data  are  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1910,  the  only  year 
for  which  data  were  collected. 


which  they  could  well  be  sent.  In  such  cases  the  decision  of 
the  court  always  turns  upon  the  best  opportunity  for  giving  the 
child  proper  treatment,  without  regard  to  the  technical  charge 
against  him.  The  common  expression  used  in  the  court  record 
of  such  delinquent  or  dependent  cases  was:  "The  boy  was 
found  to  have  been  very  irregular  in  attendance  at  school,  and 
his  case  was  continued  for  a  truant  petition." 


TRUANCY,  DEPENDENCY,  DELINQUENCY        191 

It  will  be  recalled  that  the  Parental  School  was  not  opened 
until  January,  1902,  two  and  one-half  years  after  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Juvenile  Court.  Until  the  Parental  School  was 
opened  there  was  no  special  institutional  provision  for  truants; 
and  truant  boys  were  therefore  brought  into  court  as  delin- 
quent, or  in  one  or  two  instances  as  dependent,  but  no  child 
was  "found  truant"  by  the  court  until  a  place  of  commitment 
had  been  opened.  During  the  year  1899-1900,  57  boys  charged 
with  truancy  were  brought  into  court  as  delinquent;  in  1900- 
1901,  33  delinquent  boys  and  one  dependent  boy  were  charged 
either  with  truancy  or  incorrigibility  in  the  schoolroom;  and 
between  July  i,  1901,  and  the  opening  of  the  Parental  School 
in  January,  1902,  10  delinquent  boys  were  charged  with  truancy. 
The  majority  of  these  boys  were  paroled  or  committed  to  the 
John  Worthy  School,  an  institution  for  delinquent  boys,  but 
a  few  were  sent  to  institutions  for  dependent  children.  During 
the  first  few  years  after  the  founding  of  the  Parental  School 
truant  boys  were  still  brought  into  court  on  dependent  or  delin- 
quent petitions,  but  charged  with  the  specific  offense  of 
"truancy." 

In  fact,  if  we  accept  the  definition  of  a  "dependent"  child 
as  it  is  found  in  the  juvenile  court  law,  it  is  clear  that  many  of 
the  truant  boys  might  be  correctly  termed  dependent.  In  the 
words  of  this  statute,  "dependent"  and  "neglected"  are  used 
synonymously,  and  a  dependent  or  neglected  child  is  "a  child 
without  proper  parental  care  or  guardianship,  or  a  child  who  has 
a  home  which  by  reason  of  neglect,  cruelty,  or  depravity,  on 
the  part  of  its  parents,  guardian,  or  any  other  person  in  whose 
care  it  may  be,  is  an  unfit  place  for  such  a  child."  The  tables 
appearing  in  chap,  x  relating  to  the  truant  boys  who  have  been 
committed  show  how  frequently  such  conditions  are  found  in  the 
homes  of  the  boys  who  are  sent  to  the  Parental  School  as  truants. 
Occasionally  it  happens  that  a  boy  is  transferred  directly  from 
the  Parental  School  to  some  dependent  or  delinquent  institution, 


IQ2     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

or  that  truant  boys  who  are  on  parole  are  sent  to  some  other 
institution  upon  violation  of  their  paroles  instead  of  being 
returned  to  the  Parental  School. 

The  inter-relation  of  truancy,  delinquency,  and  dependency 
is  seen  in  those  cases  in  which  conditions  in  the  home  have  made 
the  development  of  right  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  children 
extremely  difficult.  In  the  case,  for  example,  of  one  boy  who 
was  brought  into  court  at  the  age  of  eleven,  charged  with 
truancy  and  violation  of  the  rules  and  sent  to  the  Parental 
School,  the  records  showed  that  he  had  been  brought  to  court 
when  he  was  only  three  years  old  on  a  dependent  charge.  Con- 
ditions in  the  home  were  terrible:  there  were  nine  children; 
the  father  had  deserted  the  family  more  than  once;  the  older 
brothers  were  "loafers";  an  older  sister  had  been  sent  to  an 
institution  for  delinquent  girls;  the  home  was  filthy,  and  the 
whole  family  drank  and  fought  among  themselves.  The  mother 
was  described  by  one  school  principal  as  a  "terrible  woman 
who  was  known  to  have  used  a  knife  on  someone  who  visited 
the  family."  Less  than  two  years  after  the  boy  had  been 
brought  to  court  for  truancy,  he  was  brought  in  as  delinquent 
on  the  charge  of  stealing,  and  only  a  year  later  he  was  in  court 
again  on  the  same  charge.  At  the  time  this  inquiry  was  made 
the  boy  was  doing  fairly  well  at  school,  was  in  the  fifth  grade 
and  attending  school  regularly;  but  there  is  very  slight  chance 
of  a  good  life  for  a  boy  who  is  left  in  such  a  home. 

In  another  family  from  which  two  boys  were  sent  to  the  • 
Parental  School,  both  parents  were  hard  drinkers  and  were 
cruel  to  their  children.  Later  the  mother  died;  the  father,  a 
cripple,  deserted,  and  the  home  was  broken  up.  The  youngest 
boy  was  brought  into  court  when  he  was  twelve  years  old  and 
in  the  second  grade,  and  was  sent  to  the  Parental  School. 
Before  this  time  he  had  been  in  court  twice  as  a  dependent,  had 
been  sent  twice  to  the  County  Hospital  for  treatment,  and  was 
once  committed  to  an  institution  for  dependent  children. 


TRUANCY,  DEPENDENCY,  DELINQUENCY        193 

After  nine  months  at  the  Parental  School,  it  was  thought  best 
to  transfer  him  to  the  school  for  the  feeble-minded,  so  he 
escaped  delinquency  by  being  committed  to  that  institution. 

In  another  case  a  boy  of  thirteen  who  was  supposedly  attend- 
ing the  third  grade  in  school  was  brought  to  court  for  persistent 
truancy  and  sent  to  the  Parental  School.  The  boy's  early  his- 
tory threw  a  great  deal  of  light  on  his  conduct.  He  was  the 
youngest  of  six  children.  The  mother  died  when  he  was  very 
small;  and  the  father,  an  inefficient  workman,  earned  very  low 
wages,  drank  heavily,  and  took  no  care  of  the  children.  The 
youngest  boy  was  first  brought  into  court  when  he  was  ten  years 
old  as  a  dependent  child  without  proper  home  care,  and  was 
sent  to  an  institution  for  dependent  children.  Two  years  later 
he  was  brought  into  court  as  a  delinquent  and  paroled;  but 
within  a  few  months  he  was  brought  in  again  as  a  dependent 
and  placed  under  the  care  of  a  probation  officer.  By  this  time 
he  was  thirteen  and  he  was  soon  sent  to  the  Parental  School. 
Not  long  after  being  paroled  from  the  Parental  School  he  was 
brought  in  again  as  delinquent  for  stealing  coal  from  the  tracks 
and  money  from  stores,  and  was  sent  to  an  institution  for 
delinquent  boys,  where  he  was  at  the  time  of  our  inquiry. 

One  boy  who  had  been  committed  to  a  dependent  insti- 
tution three  years  before  he  was  sent  to  the  Parental  School  had 
a  younger  brother  who  was  for  several  years  in  an  institution 
for  dependent  children.  The  father  died  of  tuberculosis,  and 
the  mother  drank  and  was  immoral.  The  family  lived  for  some 
time  in  one  room,  very  dirty  and  poorly  furnished,  in  a  very 
dirty  rear  tenement.  At  the  age  of  thirteen  the  older  boy  was 
brought  to  court  by  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education 
and  sent  to  the  Parental  School.  He  had  reached  the  fourth 
grade  in  school,  his  deportment  was  good,  and  he  was  doing 
fairly  well  with  his  studies,  but  he  was  staying  away  from 
school — a  dangerous  practice  in  demoralizing  surroundings. 
He  was  kept  in  the  Parental  School  only  three  months;  but 


194    TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

after  he  was  paroled,  conditions  at  home  were  so  bad  that  there 
was  no  chance  of  improvement  and  a  few  weeks  later  he  was 
returned  to  the  Parental  School  for  violation  of  his  parole  and 
was  kept  there  until  he  was  fourteen.  Six  months  after  his 
release,  he  was  brought  into  court  for  refusing  to  work  and  for 
not  staying  at  home.  The  case  was  continued,  but  two  months 
later  when  he  was  charged  with  forging  a  check  for  $5  he  was  sent 
to  the  John  Worthy  School,  where  he  stayed  for  seven  months. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  although  the  mother  attributes 
the  boy's  delinquency  to  the  fact  that  she  had  to  work  and  could 
not  watch  him,  the  truant  officer  states  emphatically  that  the 
boy  had  no  chance  with  an  immoral,  drinking  mother  and  a 
degraded  home. 

In  a  large  number  of  other  cases  in  which  the  child  escaped 
being  brought  into  court  as  dependent,  he  came  from  a  miserable 
and  degraded  home,  where  he  was  neglected  in  many  ways. 
One  of  the  first  evidences  of  this  neglect  was  his  irregularity  or 
bad  conduct  at  school.  But  the  appearance  in  court  for  truancy 
is  followed  later  by  dependency  or  delinquency. 

For  example,  John was  brought  into  court  both  for 

truancy  and  violation  of  school  rules  at  the  age  of  eleven,  when 
he  was  in  the  second  grade  at  school.  The  boy  was  the  fifth  child 
in  a  family  of  seven  children,  of  whom  the  eldest  was  twenty, 
the  youngest  four.  The  father  was  a  carpenter  and  belonged  to 
the  union,  but  was  a  drunken  loafer  and  gambler  who  could 
not  support  his  family.  He  was  always  out  of  a  job,  sent  his 
little  girls  to  saloons  for  whiskey,  beat  his  wife  and  abused  her 
so  that  she  said  she  "would  rather  be  beaten  than  hear  him 
talk  to  her."  He  had  deserted  more  than  once  and  had  been 
several  times  before  the  court  for  non-support.  A  brother 
older  than  John,  who  had  been  at  the  Chicago  Parental  School, 
was  like  the  father:  he  loafed,  smoked,  and  ill-treated  his 
mother.  He  was  known  in  the  neighborhood  as  "a  little 
tough."  Various  social  agencies  were  interested  in  the  family; 


TRUANCY,  DEPENDENCY,  DELINQUENCY        195 

and  the  younger  boy,  who  was  always  liked  by  the  teacher  and 
the  pupils  but  who  had  a  bad  temper  and  was  led  by  his  older 
brothers,  was  finally  sent  to  the  Chicago  Parental  School  to 
get  him  away  from  home  conditions.  The  mother  was  inter- 
viewed at  a  store  where  she  was  working.  She  was  interested 
in  the  children  and  wished  something  could  be  done  to  make 
the  fifteen-year-old  boy  go  to  school.  Although,  when  inter- 
viewed, she  had  a  separate  maintenance,  she  was  much  con- 
cerned about  getting  rid  of  her  "old  man,"  and  she  said  she 
wished  she  "could  kill  him  off." 

Equally  dependent  were  two  brothers  sent  to  the  Parental 
School  because  of  truancy,  due  to  neglect  in  the  home:  John 
and  Joseph  A —  — ,  two  illiterate  Polish  boys,  were  brought 
into  court  at  the  age  of  thirteen  and  eleven  respectively.  The 
court  record  showed  that  the  boys  had  been  extremely  irregular 
in  attendance  and  that  John,  the  elder,  who  was  in  the  second 
grade,  had  attended  school  only  occasionally  during  the  pre- 
vious year.  Joseph,  the  younger,  who  was  in  the  first  grade, 
had  been  absent  oftener  than  he  had  been  present.  The  princi- 
pal's report  said  that  the  father  drank  and  that  the  mother  was 
insane,  although  she  had  not  been  removed  from  the  home. 
When  the  family  was  visited,  the  mother  and  two  boys  were 
found  at  home  quarreling.  The  home  was  a  very  dirty,  rear 
tenement,  reached  through  a  long  and  narrow  passageway 
between  the  buildings.  The  neighborhood  was  dismal,  dirty, 
partly  unpaved,  deserted,  and  there  was  a  stone-cutting  estab- 
lishment near  with  yards  covering  several  blocks.  The  woman, 
who  was  scolding  the  children  because  there  was  no  food,  or 
wood,  or  coal,  cried  and  put  her  hands  on  the  cold  stove.  Both 
boys  made  fun  of  her,  saying  "the  old  woman  hadn't  any 
sense."  The  older  boy  could  write  nothing  except  his  name; 
the  younger  then  in  a  parochial  school  would  not  tell  the  grade. 
Both  the  bo.ys  and  the  mother  were  cases  for  institutional  care. 
The  father  drank  and  neglected  them  all. 


196     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

There  are  many  cases  of  boys  who  have  "brought  them- 
selves up,"  as  one  deserted  mother  expressed  it.  A  little 
Italian  boy,  whose  mother  was  dead  and  father  deserted,  was 
supported  by  an  older  brother  who  earned  enough  to  pay  their 
board  with  an  aunt.  She  had  nine  children  of  her  own  to  look 
after  and  said  she  really  had  not  the  time  to  see  that  this  boy 
went  to  school,  for  getting  him  to  school  had  come  to  mean 
"  chasing  him  off  the  streets  and  away  from  the  alleys."  Another 
motherless  truant  boy  had  a  father  with  a  criminal  record  who 
had  deserted  his  children,  an  older  sister  who  was  leading  an 
immoral  life,  and  an  older  brother  who  had  been  in  the  State 
Reform  School  at  Pontiac,  but  who  was  the  sole  guardian  and 
support  of  his  little  brother.  When  the  boy  was  eleven  years 
old  he  was  brought  in  on  a  truancy  charge  and  sent  to  the 
Parental  School,  where  he  was  kept  for  nine  months.  His 
school  reports  showed  an  improvement  after  his  return,  and 
his  brother  said  that,  although  he  was  "wild  and  crazy"  before 
going,  he  came  back  steadied  and  much  improved  physically. 
The  brothers  later  lived  in  a  rooming-house  in  the  heart  of  the 
vice  district  and  worked  as  teamsters  in  a  coal  yard  directly 
back  of  a  saloon.  The  woman  in  charge  of  the  rooming-house 
drank,  but  the  boys  seemed  to  have  escaped  contamination. 
In  the  case  of  another  boy  the  father  was  thoroughly  worthless 
and  made  the  mother  go  out  to  work;  the  mother  finally  got 
a  divorce  and  married  again,  but  the  step-father  was  no  better, 
and  the  mother  was  obliged  to  go  out  washing  much  of  the  time. 
This  boy  spent  a  year  and  a  half  in  an  orphan  asylum  at  one 
time,  but  was  attending  the  public  school  when  he  was  brought 
into  court  and  sent  to  the  Parental  School.  He  was  then  ten 
years  old  and  in  the  third  grade  at  school,  and  was  described 
as  "dirty,  dull,  and  ill-tempered,"  although  apparently  in  good 
physical  condition. 

Another  boy,  who  was  brought  to  court  as  a  truant  and 
schoolroom  incorrigible,  was  the  youngest  of  eight  children  with 


TRUANCY,  DEPENDENCY,  DELINQUENCY        197 

a  mother  who  drank  heavily  and  who  had  led  all  the  seven  older 
children  into  bad  habits.  This  boy  was  said  not  to  be  "adapted 
for  school  work,"  but  after  five  months  at  the  Parental  School  he 
returned,  not  to  his  own  degraded  home,  but  to  a  kind  and  com- 
petent aunt  who  was  able  to  provide  for  him  and  to  protect  him. 

The  dependent  cases  that  have  been  given  are  some  of  them 
also  cases  in  which  the  boy  became  delinquent.  Many  similar 
cases  might  be  discussed,  but  it  seems  scarcely  necessary  to 
illustrate  so  obvious  a  fact  as  the  close  connection  between 
delinquency  and  truancy  when  truancy  is  the  direct  outcome  of 
a  bad  home  or  of  neighborhood  conditions.  The  undisciplined 
and  undirected  boy  who  plays  truant  to  go  to  nickel  shows  and 
who  "chases  the  streets"  soon  gets  in  with  the  gang  that  lies 
in  wait  like  Satan  himself  in  districts  where  children  are  so 
numerous  and  means  of  recreation  so  limited;  the  loafing  on 
the  streets  leads  to  genuine  marauding  expeditions,  and  the  boy 
is  soon  in  court  again  and  is  technically  no  longer  truant  but 
has  become  delinquent. 

In  the  case  of  an  Italian  boy,  one  of  six  children,  most  of 
whom  were  born  in  Italy,  the  father  was  a  laborer,  frequently 
out  of  work,  and  the  mother  a  "pants  finisher"  who  worked 
very  hard  to  earn  enough  for  food.  The  family  lived  in  three 
very  dirty  rooms  in  a  miserably  dilapidated  rear  tenement  with 
steep  dark  stairways.  The  street  on  which  they  lived  was  near 
the  river;  the  houses  were  tumble-down,  and  there  were  in  the 
neighborhood  many  saloons  and  cheap  places  of  amusement. 
This  boy  got  in  with  some  bad  boys  when  he  was  very  small, 
and  was  brought  to  court  as  delinquent  when  he  was  only  seven. 
His  parents  were  unable  to  get  him  away  from  bad  company 
although  they  said  that  they  punished  him  most  severely! 
When  he  was  thirteen  years  old  and  in  the  fourth  grade  in  the 
public  school,  he  was  finally  brought  to  court  as  an  habitual 
truant  and  sent  to  the  Parental  School.  He  was  there  five 
months,  and  the  mother  thought  him  greatly  improved;  but 


198     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

he  was  soon  in  court  again,  this  time  for  stealing,  and  was  sent 
to  the  John  Worthy  School. 

An  interesting  case  is  that  of  a  boy  who  was  a  younger  child 
in  a  family  of  seven  children  whose  father  was  dead  and  whose 
mother  was  immoral.  The  family  lived  in  a  rear  basement 
apartment,  dark,  dirty,  and  poorly  furnished,  in  a  poor  neigh- 
borhood near  the  railroad  tracks.  The  children  were  greatly 
neglected,  and  one  of  the  sisters  was  sent  to  an  institution  for 
delinquent  girls.  This  boy  was  first  brought  into  court  when 
he  was  twelve  years  old,  charged  with  stealing  junk  from  stores. 
He  was  also  attending  school  very  irregularly,  and  a  few  months 
later  he  was  brought  into  court  again  as  an  habitual  truant  and 
sent  to  the  Parental  School,  where  he  remained  fourteen  months. 
The  boy  enjoyed  the  military  drill  and  liked  the  school  so  much 
that  he  asked  to  be  sent  back  after  he  left.  Soon  after  he  was 
fourteen  and  too  old  to  go  back  to  the  Parental  School,  he  was 
brought  into  court  as  delinquent,  charged  with  incorrigibility 
and  running  away  from  home,  and  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy 
School.  He  was  one  of  a  large  number  of  boys  from  poor  and 
neglected  homes  who  have  their  first  experience  of  a  disci- 
plined, well-ordered  life  in  the  Parental  School,  and  many  of 
them  respond  to  its  influence  as  this  boy  did,  and  would  like 
to  stay. 

In  one  home  which  had  been  visited  by  the  truant  officer 
ten  times  within  two  years,  the  boy  who  was  truant  was  the 
youngest  of  five  children  and  seemed  always  to  have  been  in 
poor  physical  condition.  The  home  was  very  poor,  the  father 
a  day  laborer,  frequently  out  of  work,  and  the  mother  dead. 
The  boy  had  no  home  care  or  training.  He  was  said  by  the 
principal  to  be  one  of  the  "worst  types  of  confirmed  truants 
drifting  into  crime."  When  he  was  brought  in  off  the  streets, 
he  stayed  only  until  recess.  When  he  was  eleven  years  old 
and  in  the  third  grade  of  the  public  school,  he  was  brought  into 
court  as  an  habitual  truant  and  sent  to  the  Parental  School. 


TRUANCY,  DEPENDENCY,  DELINQUENCY         199 

After  he  had  been  there  five  months,  he  was  sent  home  on 
parole,  but  was  returned  a  month  later  and  was  kept  four 
months  longer.  His  older  sister,  who  is  a  very  indifferent 
guardian,  said  that  the  boy  "was  better"  for  a  month  after  his 
return,  but  soon  got  in  trouble  again,  was  brought  into  court 
as  delinquent,  and  was  later  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School. 

In  one  family  from  which  two  boys  were  brought  into  court, 
the  father,  a  brutal,  immoral  man,  deserted  the  family  and  went 
off  with  a  disreputable  woman.  The  mother,  who  had  obtained 
a  divorce  from  her  husband,  did  scrubbing  and  washing  away 
from  home.  She  was  devoted  to  the  two  sons,  but  weak,  over- 
indulgent,  and  unable  to  control  them;  she  used  to  try  to  bribe 
the  boys  to  go  to  school,  but  they  took  her  money  and  played 
truant.  The  older  boy  has  been  in  Glenwood  as  a  dependent, 
in  the  John  Worthy  School  as  a  delinquent,  and  was  afterward 
returned  to  court  on  a  delinquent  charge.  When  the  younger 
boy  was  eleven  years  old  and  only  in  the  third  grade  at  school, 
he  was  brought  into  court  for  habitual  truancy;  he  was  said 
to  be  a  cigarette  fiend,  congenitally  defective,  and  morally 
weak.  The  case  was  continued,  and  four  months  later  he  was 
committed  to  the  Chicago  Parental  School.  He  was  later 
transferred  to  an  institution  for  dependent  boys. 

This  series  of  illustrative  cases  might  be  almost  indefinitely 
prolonged.  A  sufficient  number  of  examples  has,  however, 
been  given  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  conditions  in  the  home 
that  lead  to  neglect  of  the  children,  whether  the  causes  of  neg- 
lect be  immorality,  drunkenness,  incompetence,  ignorance,  or 
extreme  poverty,  are  likely  to  lead  to  interference  by  the  state 
with  parental  authority.  Whether  the  child  is  declared  truant, 
dependent,  or  delinquent  is  largely  a  matter  of  accident.  In 
any  event,  the  child  becomes  the  ward  of  the  state,  and  parental 
control  over  the  child  is  supplemented  or  superseded  as  the 
child's  needs  may  dictate. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

ENFORCEMENT  OF  THE  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  LAW  IN 
THE  MUNICIPAL  COURT  OF  CHICAGO 

It  has  been  pointed  out  in  earlier  chapters  that  the  com- 
pulsory school  law  has  laid  on  the  parent  or  guardian  of  any 
child  within  certain  prescribed  ages  the  duty  of  securing  the 
child's  attendance  at  school;  upon  the  educational  authorities 
has  been  laid  the  duty  of  making  effective  and  vigilant  use  of 
the  power  to  prosecute  those  parents  who  refuse  to  comply  with 
the  requirements. 

The  necessity  for  such  drastic  treatment  arises  under  several 
different  sets  of  conditions.  It  should  be  noted  that  to  assure 
to  all  children  seven  or  nine  years  of  schooling  is  to  set  a  mini- 
mum standard  of  care  and  education  which  lays  a  heavy  burden 
upon  families  that  are  poor.  A  sympathetic  understanding  of 
this  fact  should  be  shared  by  all  school  authorities  and  judges 
whose  duty  it  becomes  to  enforce  the  law.  The  poorest  parents 
are  often  those  who  are  most  solicitous  for  the  welfare  of  their 
children,  but  so  beset  and  burdened  are  they  with  the  hard 
struggle  for  life  that  they  see  no  way  of  providing  for  the  younger 
children  except  to  sacrifice  the  older  ones. 

The  difficulty  is  of  course  greatly  enhanced  when  ignorance 
or  indifference  is  added  to  poverty.  This  is  found  in  many 
instances  where  the  parents  have  had  no  reason  to  appreciate 
the  importance  of  the  child's  schooling.  Coming,  as  so  many 
of  them  do,  from  the  rural  districts  of  our  own  or  of  other 
countries,  they  have  had  no  experience  that  will  interpret  to 
them  the  changed  demand  of  the  modern  industrial  community 
on  the  child.  They,  like  their  fathers  and  their  forefathers, 
have  expected  their  children  to  work  hard  about  the  house  or 


COMPULSORY  LAW  IN  THE  MUNICIPAL  COURT     201 

farm  during  childhood  and  to  begin  wage-earning  life  at  a  very 
early  age,  and  many  of  them  feel  wronged  if  they  are  prevented 
from  calling  upon  their  children  at  an  early  age  to  share  the 
burdens  of  family  support.  It  is,  therefore,  unreasonable  to 
expect  parents  to  yield  at  once  and  without  objection  to  the 
requirements  of  the  compulsory  school  law.  On  this  account 
every  opportunity  must  be  used  to  make  known  to  them  their 
duty  under  the  law,  to  help  them  understand  the  reason  for 
laying  the  duty  upon  them,  and,  where  possible,  to  secure  their 
sympathy  and  co-operation.  The  very  great  difference  between 
the  number  of  parents  on  whom  warning  notices  must  be  served, 
and  of  those  for  whom  prosecution  is  found  necessary,  is  an  indi- 
cation of  the  readiness  with  which  most  parents  are  willing  to 
observe  the  law  when  they  understand  it.  Whatever  the 
deficiencies  in  the  system  at  the  present  time,  however,  and  what- 
ever the  hardships  to  the  parent,  the  demand  of  the  state  is 
an  inexorable  one,  and  stringent  enforcement  of  the  statute 
should  be  the  rule.  The  state  should,  in  fact,  be  relentless  in 
demanding  that  the  child's  future  must  not  be  jeopardized. 

When  the  family  is  not  only  poor  and  unintelligent  but 
irregular  in  its  habits,  when  there  is  drunkenness  or  any  other 
demoralizing  influence  at  work  in  the  home,  severer  treatment 
than  commitment  to  the  Parental  School  will  be  found  neces- 
sary in  order  to  secure  for  the  child  that  minimum  of  education 
which  the  state  has  said  he  must  have.  In  such  cases,  after 
being  duly  warned,  the  parent  himself  becomes  the  object  of 
prosecution.  In  1913-14,  for  example,  it  was  found  necessary 
to  prosecute  67  parents  who  had  with  1,169  others  been  duly 
warned,  but,  unlike  the  others,  had  failed  to  heed  the  warning. 
Table  XXVI  shows  the  number  of  warning  notices  served  and 
of  prosecutions  carried  through  by  the  Department  of  Com- 
pulsory Education  from  1900  to  1914. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  great  increase  in  the  number  of 
prosecutions  and  of  warning  notices  for  three  years  after  1903, 


202     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

when  the  law  was  amended.  For  the  next  year  there  was 
a  marked  drop  in  both  warnings  and  prosecutions,  and,  although 
the  law  was  again  radically  amended  in  1907,  there  was  no  strik- 
ing change  as  a  result.  It  is,  in  fact,  impossible  to  discover  from 
these  figures  evidence  of  any  policy  directing  the  use  either  of 

TABLE  XXVI 

NUMBER  OF  WARNING  NOTICES  AND 
PROSECUTIONS,  1900-1914 


Year  Ending  June  30 

Warning  Notices 

Prosecutions* 

IQOO.  . 

12 

•21 

IQOI     . 

f 

17 

1902               

169 

IQO3.  . 

470 

204 

1004.  . 

1,  060 

3O7 

lOO?.  . 

4,28^ 

ACI 

1006.  . 

2,820 

7O2 

IQO7    . 

2.2IQ 

1  2O 

1008 

1,646 

178 

IQOQ 

1,437 

1  08 

IQIO.  . 

,71-Z 

138 

IQII  .  . 

,884 

XOC 

IQI2.  . 

,^3 

118 

IQI3.  . 

,611 

1  2Q 

IQI4.  . 

,2^6 

67 

Total  

21,03? 

2  .&4J 

*  Up  to  the  year  1903-4  these  figures  seem  to  include 
prosecutions  of  boys  in  the  Juvenile  Court, 
t  Figures  not  given  in  published  reports. 

warning  notices  or  of  prosecutions.  The  superintendent 
explains  the  decrease  in  1914  as  compared  with  1913  as  evi- 
dencing "public  respect  for  the  enforced  law  on  school  attend- 
ance and  the  knowledge  that  truant  officers'  warnings  must  be 
heeded."1  Such  a  sudden  access  of  public  respect  for  the  law 
would  be  more  easily  understood  if  the  figures  for  the  four  pre- 


1  Sixtieth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago  (1913-14), 
p.  407,  "Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Compulsory  Education." 


COMPULSORY  LAW  IN  THE  MUNICIPAL  COURT     203 

ceding  years  had  indicated  that  such  a  respect  was  growing 
and  might  suddenly  expand,  but  the  figures  go  up  and  then 
down  in  a  way  that  cannot  be  easily  or  satisfactorily  ac- 
counted for.  Unfortunately,  the  results  of  the  prosecutions 
are  not  known.  No  figures  are  published  in  the  annual  reports 
of  the  Board  of  Education  to  show  what  disposition  was  made 
of  their  cases.  It  is,  therefore,  impossible  to  tell  how  many 
parents  were  fined,  or  how  many  were  imprisoned  or  discharged. 
No  conclusions  can  be  drawn  therefore  as  to  what  had  or  what 
had  not  proved  to  be  effective  treatment  of  such  cases. 

Attention  has  been  called  above  to  the  lack  of  other  ma- 
chinery for  interpreting  the  attitude  of  the  community  effect- 
ively to  the  parent.  Prosecution  followed  by  a  fine  is  a  harsh 
method  of  interpretation,  but  it  is  one  whose  message  can  hardly 
be  misunderstood.  The  imposition  of  a  fine  results  in  the 
placing  of  a  money  estimate  upon  the  child's  attendance.  This 
at  least  every  parent  can  understand;  and  if  anyone  has  been 
tempted  to  allow  his  child  to  leave  school  for  the  sake  of  the 
child's  earnings,  he  can  measure  the  relative  advantage  of 
school  attendance  without  wages  and  of  absence  with  the  risk 
of  being  fined.  Moreover,  as  many  of  these  parents  are  very 
poor,  the  fine  is  sometimes  not  paid,  but  is  "laid  out"  in  the 
bridewell  or  the  county  jail  at  the  rate  of  fifty  cents  a  day. 
This  means  the  forfeiture  of  the  man's  wages,  as  well  as  deten- 
tion and  separation  from  his  family.  Not  only  the  family,  but 
the  entire  neighborhood  is  thus  impressed  with  the  concern  of 
the  state  for  the  education  even  of  the  poorest  child. 

The  prosecutions,  as  has  been  said,  are,  in  Chicago,  insti- 
tuted in  the  Municipal  Court,  and,  since  April  3,  1911,  in  that 
branch  of  the  Municipal  Court  known  as  the  Court  of  Domestic 
Relations.  The  case  for  the  prosecution  is  presented  by  a 
representative  of  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education, 
and  testimony  is  offered  by  the  principal  or  teacher  from  the 
school  attended  by  the  child.  The  accused  has,  of  course, 


204     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

a  right  to  trial  by  jury,  but  is  usually  willing  to  waive  jury  trial 
and  to  leave  the  finding  to  the  judge.  The  parents  are  often 
represented  by  counsel,  but  the  trial  is  quite  informal,  and  the 
decision  really  turns  upon  the  question  of  adequate  warning 
and  on  the  honest  effort  of  the  parent  to  secure  the  child's 
attendance.  It  is,  of  course,  usually  the  father  who  is  the 
defendant  in  these  prosecutions.  Out  of  58  cases  brought 
into  the  Court  of  Domestic  Relations  during  the  period  for 
which  we  have  records  only  5  were  against  guardians  other 
than  the  father;  4  of  these  were  against  the  mother,  and  i 
against  the  brother  of  the  child. 

No  figures  are  available  showing  the  results  of  the  prose- 
cutions in  the  Municipal  Court  except  for  a  single  year,  April  3, 
1911,  to  March  31,  1912,  the  first  year  of  the  Court  of  Domestic 
Relations.  During  that  year  124  persons  were  brought  in  and 
74  of  them  were  fined.1  In  the  other  50  cases  no  fine  was 
imposed.  In  some  instances  where  no  fine  is  imposed,  the  case 
is  "continued"  for  two  weeks  or  a  month,  so  that  the  parents 
may  show  whether  they  can  and  will  undertake  to  send  the 
child  to  school;  and  sometimes  when  the  fine  is  imposed,  the 
court  will  suspend  its  collection  and  then  under  form  of  dis- 
missal remit  the  fine  because  of  improved  attendance  on  the 
part  of  the  child.  By  both  of  these  devices  the  family  is  really 
placed  on  probation. 

It  does  not  appear  that  any  more  definite  policy  character- 
izes the  treatment  of  these  cases  by  the  court  than  their  treat- 
ment by  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education.  As  the 
actions  which  have  been  taken  are  not  available  in  published 

1  The  fine  for  failing  to  secure  attendance,  as  has  been  said,  may  be 
anything  between  $5  and  $20,  with  or  without  costs,  which  amount  gen- 
erally to  about  $8 . 50.  The  amount  most  commonly  imposed  is  $5  with- 
out costs.  Between  July  i,  1911,  and  June  30,  1912,  45  persons  were  fined. 
Of  these,  36  were  fined  $5  without  costs,  seven  were  fined  $5  with  costs, 
one  $10  without,  and  one  $10  with  costs.  Five  "laid  out"  their  fines  in 
in  the  House  of  Correction,  and  three  in  the  county  jail. 


COMPULSORY  LAW  IN  THE  MUNICIPAL  COURT     205 

reports,  figures  were  obtained  from  the  records,  by  which  a 
comparison  of  the  treatment  of  cases  during  the  months  April, 
May,  and  June,  1911,  could  be  made  with  the  corresponding 
months  of  the  following  year,  when  there  had  been  a  change 
in  the  personnel  of  the  court.  Under  the  earlier  administration 
47  out  of  71  cases,  or  2  out  of  3,  were  fined,  while  during  the 
second  period  only  2 1  out  of  the  same  number,  or  less  than  i  in 
3,  were  fined,  and  the  other  50  escaped  punishment  altogether. 
During  the  four  years  following  the  opening  of  the  court,  five 
different  judges  had  general  assignments  to  this  court,1  and 
there  was  no  reason  to  hope  for  an  agreement  among  them  with 
reference  to  the  seriousness  of  this  particular  responsibility. 
It  is,  in  fact,  inevitable  that  there  should  be  a  difference  in 
policy  on  the  part  of  the  judges,  since  the  whole  question  of 
the  importance  of  the  child's  right  to  be  in  school  every  half- 
day  the  school  is  open  is  still  so  lightly  regarded  by  many  well- 
meaning  people  in  the  community.  To  the  judge,  the  ancient 
parental  right  to  determine  for  the  child  must  still  seem  very 
important,  and  the  case  for  intervention  on  the  part  of  the  com- 
munity would  have  to  be  made  very  clear.  Not  until  the  Court 
of  Domestic  Relations  has  been  thoroughly  socialized,  and  is 
presided  over  only  by  men  who  can  and  will  inform  themselves 
with  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  pressing  social  problems  with 
which  they  deal,  can  the  court  become  an  effective  instrument 
for  social  treatment. 

Attention  is  called  in  the  preceding  chapter  to  the  fact  that, 
although  the  parental  school  law  applies  to  girls  as  well  as  to 
boys,  no  provision  has  been  made  at  the  Parental  School  for 
girls.  It  was  also  pointed  out  that  very  few  girls  have  been 
brought  into  the  Juvenile  Court  as  truants — 37  girls  out  of  a 
total  of  5,659  children.  A  very  considerable  number  of  parents 
are,  however,  disciplined  in  the  Municipal  Court  for  allowing 
their  daughters  to  remain  out  of  school.  Out  of  58  compulsory 

1  Beside  brief  special  and  vacation  assignments. 


206     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

education  cases  brought  in  during  the  spring  of  1911,  20  were 
cases  in  which  girls  had  remained  out  of  school,  while  out  of  90 
cases  for  which  the  facts  were  available  in  1912-13,  42,  or  about 
50  per  cent,  were  cases  of  girl  truants.  Attention  might  be 
called  here  again  to  the  fact  that  whereas  the  truant  boy  is  a 
source  of  disturbance,  attracting  notice  on  the  street  and  more 
or  less  getting  himself  into  trouble,  the  non-attending  girl 
usually  is  helping  in  her  father's  shop,  taking  care  of  the  baby, 
caring  for  her  sick  mother,  or  doing  some  other  household  task. 
One  thirteen-year-old  girl,  for  example,  whose  father,  an  Italian, 
had  a  fruit  and  cigar  store,  lost  sixty-six  days  during  one  school 
year  and  had  been  at  school  only  a  day  and  a  half  prior  to 
November  13,  of  the  following  year.  The  mother  was  sick, 
and  the  girl  was  kept  out  of  school  to  help  in  the  store  and  about 
the  home.  Another  thirteen-year-old  Italian  girl,  who  was 
only  in  the  second  grade,  had  been  kept  at  home  because  the 
mother  "took  in"  several  men  boarders;  there  were  three  or 
four  younger  children,  and  she  was  needed  to  help  at  home. 

When  the  reasons  for  keeping  the  children  at  home  are 
examined,  they  explain  the  fact,  too,  that  the  girls  for  whose 
absence  parents  are  brought  into  the  Municipal  Court  are  older 
than  the  boys.  Out  of  20  girls  whose  parents  were  prosecuted, 
13  were  twelve  or  older,  while  only  13  out  of  38  boys  were 
twelve  or  over.  In  a  considerable  number  of  cases  the  girl's 
absence  means  that  she  is  being  used  at  home;  the  boy's  more 
often  indicates  a  family  life  too  irregular  and  careless  to  get  the 
younger  children  ready  for  school,  since  the  older  boy  is  more 
likely  to  be  brought  into  the  Juvenile  Court  and  sent  to  the 
Parental  School. 

As  has  been  said,  some  of  the  parents  are  merely  ignorant 
and  use  their  children  in  household  tasks  or  send  them  out  to 
work  unnecessarily ;  but  there  are  some  homes  where  the  poverty 
is  great  and  the  mother  goes  out  to  work,  so  that  the  child,  some- 
times a  girl,  sometimes  a  boy,  stays  at  home  to  take  the  mother's 


COMPULSORY  LAW  IN  THE  MUNICIPAL  COURT     207 

place.  For  example,  Helen,  who  was  twelve  years  old,  was 
absent  sixty-two  half-days  between  September  and  February. 
Her  father  was  ill  and  unable  to  work.  The  mother  went  out 
washing  four  days  a  week  and  kept  Helen  at  home  to  care  for 
the  baby.  The  statement  made  by  the  mother  in  court  was, 
that  she  could  make  no  other  arrangement  for  the  baby,  and 
"anyway  she  did  not  have  time  to  comb  the  girl's  hair  and  get 
her  ready  for  school." 

There  are  also  families  in  which  the  mother  is  dead  and  the 
father  has  failed  to  make  provision  for  a  housekeeper,  and  the 
children  are  consequently  neglected  and  forlorn.  For  example, 
the  wife  of  Mr.  H —  —  died,  leaving  three  children,  a  girl  who 
did  the  housework  in  the  morning  before  going  to  her  job  in 
a  tobacco  factory,  a  fourteen-year-old  boy,  and  a  nine-year-old 
boy,  both  of  whom  were  irregular  in  attendance.  The  older 
boy  was  mischievous,  but  the  younger  was  not  at  all  troublesome, 
merely  neglected.  The  father  was  away  all  day  long,  and  there 
was  no  one  to  look  after  the  boys  or  to  help  them  as  they  came 
or  went.  The  mother  of  another  family  had  died  the  year 
before,  leaving  three  boys;  the  oldest  did  what  housekeeping 
there  was  done,  but  it  is  not  surprising  that  all  three  were 
irregular  in  their  attendance  and  came  to  school,  when  they 
did  come,  uncombed  and  neglected.  The  father  told  the  court 
that  he  was  very  strict  but  that  the  boys  stayed  away  without 
his  knowledge.  He  expected  to  be  less  busy  in  the  future 
and  would  see  that  they  attended  regularly.  Evidently  such 
families  need  many  services  other  than  those  connected  with 
prosecution.  The  thing  lacking  in  this  one  was  a  kind  woman's 
care,  and  paying  a  fine  or  serving  a  term  in  the  bridewell  will 
hardly  secure  that. 

There  are  other  cases  of  a  more  difficult  kind,  in  which  the 
father,  or  perhaps  the  mother,  drinks,  or  where  the  mother  is  of 
questionable  morality;  where  the  home  is  filthy,  and  the 
children  really  neglected.  Such  a  case  was  that  of  two  Polish 


208     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

boys,  thirteen  and  fourteen  years  old,  neither  of  whom  could 
read  or  write,  and  both  of  whom  had  been  for  a  long  time  very 
irregular  in  school  attendance.  The  mother,  who  was  a  widow, 
drank  constantly,  and  a  sixteen-year-old  girl  was  the  sole 
support  of  the  family.  The  judge  sent  the  mother  to  the  bride- 
well for  thirty  days.  In  such  cases,  the  punishment  and  disci- 
pline of  the  parents  may  perhaps  have  a  wholesome  effect.  Such 
cases  should,  however,  be  followed  by  further  supervision  of  the 
children.  In  other  words,  we  find,  as  we  should  expect,  that 
the  families  that  are  brought  into  court  are  representatives  of 
the  lowest  groups  of  homes  from  which  come  the  non-attending 
children  whose  absences  are  studied  in  other  chapters.  For 
some  of  these  children  this  method  of  treatment  seems  quite 
inadequate. 

Reference  was  made  in  an  earlier  chapter  to  the  statute 
providing  a  penalty  for  such  conduct  on  the  part  of  parents 
or  guardians  as  is  likely  to  contribute  to  the  dependency 
or  to  the  delinquency  of  children.1  Prosecution  under  this 
statute  is  usually  an  item  in  a  definite  plan  for  the  treatment 
of  a  child  who  has  been  held  dependent  or  delinquent,  as  the 

1  "Any  parent,  legal  guardian  or  person  having  the  custody  of  a  male 
under  the  age  of  17  years  or  of  a  female  under  the  age  of  18  years,  who  shall 
knowingly  or  wilfully  cause,  aid  or  encourage  such  person  to  be  or  to  become 

a  dependent  and  neglected  child  ....  or do  acts  which  directly 

tend  to  render  any  such  child  so  dependent  and  neglected,  or  who  shall 
knowingly  or  wilfully  fail  to  do  that  which  will  directly  tend  to  prevent 
such  state  of  dependency  and  neglect  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  the  crime 
of  contributing  to  the  dependency  and  neglect  of  children 

"Any  person  who  shall  knowingly  or  wilfully  cause,  aid  or  encourage 
any  male  under  the  age  of  seventeen  (17)  years  or  any  female  under  the 
age  of  eighteen  (18)  years  to  be  or  to  become  a  delinquent  child  ....  or 
....  do  acts  which  will  directly  tend  to  render  any  such  child  so  and  who 
when  able  to  do  so,  shall  wilfully  neglect  to  do  that  which  will  directly  tend 
to  prevent  such  state  of  delinquency  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  the  crime  of 
contributing  to  the  delinquency  of  children." — Laws  of  Illinois,  1915, 
pp. 368-69. 


COMPULSORY  LAW  IN  THE  MUNICIPAL  COURT     209 

case  may  be,  by  the  Juvenile  Court.  In  the  same  way,  the 
prosecution  of  these  "truant"  parents  may  be  required  in 
the  interest  of  the  child,  and  where  necessary  should  be  resorted 
to  vigorously.  But  this,  too,  should  be  an  item  in  a  program  of 
treatment  for  the  child  which  would  include  all  those  devices 
intended  for  the  rehabilitation  of  the  home  as  well  as  this 
special  device  for  disciplining  the  parent.  Unconscious  recogni- 
tion of  this  need  is  shown  in  occasional  cases  in  which  the 
Department  of  Compulsory  Education  uses  the  court  for 
exactly  this  purpose  and  attempts  to  secure  through  punish- 
ment for  non-attendance  such  discipline  as  will  result  in  the 
better  care  of  the  children  and  remove  the  causes  of  non- 
attendance.  In  one  home,  for  example,  the  mother  was  ill, 
the  children  neglected  and  filthy,  and  their  attendance  irregular. 
Evidently,  the  whole  household  had  to  be  raised  to  a  cleaner 
and  better  standard,  and  the  judge,  while  he  imposed  a  fine  on 
the  father,  also  directed  that  a  probation  officer  be  called  upon 
to  aid  in  the  supervision  of  the  family  life. 

Cases  of  this  character  suggest,  again,  interesting  questions 
of  method  and  jurisdiction.  The  school  should,  of  course,  and 
when  adequately  equipped  will,  perform  for  all  children  of 
compulsory  school  age  the  service  of  discovering  conditions 
hostile  to  their  well-being.  Through  the  school  nurse  and  the 
medical  inspector,  serious  conditions  of  neglect  will  be  revealed. 
The  discovery  is,  however,  of  little  value  unless  followed  by 
adequate  treatment  of  those  conditions.  Moreover,  in  many 
cases,  the  conditions  may  be  below  any  possible  "minimum  of 
child  care"  and  may  yet  not  manifest  themselves  in  ways  dis- 
coverable by  the  physician.  For  such  cases  there  is  needed 
the  trained  eye  of  the  person  skilled  in  the  care  of  children  and 
familiar  with  other  symptoms  of  neglect.  And,  in  fact,  in  all 
cases,  the  care  of  the  person  skilled  in  the  art  of  helping  families 
to  lift  themselves  out  of  the  mire  of  irregular,  shiftless,  or  disso- 
lute living  is  absolutely  essential.  Resort  to  discipline  and 


210     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

compulsion  must  sometimes  be  necessary,  and  there  should  be 
fairly  definite  standards  of  cleanliness  and  regularity  below 
which  no  family  should  be  allowed  to  remain.  If  the  final 
action  in  such  cases  could  be  to  leave  the  family  under  sym- 
pathetic probationary  care,  such  action  might  more  frequently 
secure  for  the  children  that  measure  of  nurture  described  by 
the  Juvenile  Court  law  as  "proper  parental  care." 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  SCHOOL  CENSUS  AS  A  MEANS  OF  ENFORCING  THE 
ATTENDANCE  LAW 

In  a  recent  report  on  Compulsory  School  Attendance,  by  the 
United  States  Bureau  of  Education,  attention  is  called  to  the 
use  of  the  school  census  as  a  means  of  enforcing  the  school 
attendance  provisions  of  the  various  school  laws.  According 
to  the  report: 

To  secure  the  enrolment  of  pupils,  several  factors  are  necessary, 
the  most  important  of  which  is  a  complete  census  of  all  children  of 

compulsory  school  age That  an  annual  census  is  necessary 

to  secure  enrolment  is  obvious.  Every  year  children  move  from  one 
district  to  another,  and  others  have  reached  the  compulsory  age 
.  .  .  .  ;  many  immigrant  children  may  have  arrived  who  would  not 
be  discovered  by  the  truant  officer  without  a  census  list.  If  a  school 
census  has  been  taken,  the  teachers  of  the  public,  private  and  parochial 
schools  can  promptly  check  off  those  not  enrolled  during  the  first  few 
weeks  of  the  school  term.  The  truant  officers  can  then  easily  locate 
them  and  secure  their  attendance.1 

Unfortunately,  however,  Illinois  is  one  of  those  states  in 
which  the  statute  makes  no  provision  for  the  taking  of  a  school 
census  as  a  means  of  enforcing  the  school  attendance  require- 
ment. The  purpose  of  the  school  census,  in  Illinois  as  in  many 
other  states  where  a  census  is  required,  is  to  secure  the  enumera- 
tion of  the  minor  population  as  a  basis  for  the  distribution  of 
the  state  or  county  school  fund.  It  may,  indeed,  be  said  that 
the  Illinois  statute  provides  only  indirectly  for  a  school  census. 

1  U.S.  Bureau  of  Education  Bulletin,  1914,  No.  2,  Compulsory  School 
Attendance,  by  W.  S.  Deffenbaugh,  Anna  Tolman  Smith,  W.  Carson  Ryan, 
Jr.,  and  William  H.  Hand.  Washington,  1914.  See  especially  pp.  12-14. 


212     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Thus  the  Illinois  school  law  declares  that  the  common  school 
fund  of  the  state  is  to  be  distributed  among  the  various  counties 
"in  proportion  to  the  number  of  persons  in  each  county  under 
the  age  of  twenty-one  years  as  ascertained  from  the  next  pre- 
ceding state  or  federal  census."  The  distribution  within  the 
county,  however,  is  made  on  the  basis  of  a  local  enumeration.1 
The  various  school  districts,  therefore,  find  it  necessary  to  take 
a  school  census,  that  is,  a  census  of  minor  population,  as  a  basis 
for  claiming  a  proper  share  of  the  common  school  fund  within 
the  county.  An  additional  reason  for  an  enumeration  is  that 
the  statistical  material  necessary  for  the  reports  of  the  state 
superintendent  of  public  instruction  can  be  obtained  only  in 
this  way.  The  state  superintendent  is  required  by  statute  to 
report  to  the  governor  before  each  regular  session  of  the  legis- 
lature (i.e.,  biennially)  concerning  the  "condition  of  the  schools 
in  the  several  counties  of  the  state  ....  the  number  of 
persons  in  each  county  under  twenty-one  years  of  age  and  the 
number  of  persons  between  the  ages  of  twelve  and  twenty-one 
unable  to  read  and  write,"  together  with  various  other  items 
of  information. 

The  Chicago  school  census  seems  to  be  taken  biennially 
because,  although  an  annual  enumeration  would  perhaps  result 
in  Chicago's  securing  a  larger  share  of  the  fund  assigned  to 
Cook  County  since  the  school  population  is  probably  increasing 

1  See  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  122,  sec.  215:  "The  county  superintendent 
of  schools  shall  apportion  and  distribute,  under  rules  and  regulations  pre- 
scribed by  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  the  principal  of  the 
county  fund  to  the  townships  and  parts  of  townships  in  his  county,  accord- 
ing to  the  number  of  persons  under  twenty-one  years  of  age  returned  to 
him.  The  principal  of  the  county  fund  so  distributed  shall  be  added  to 
the  principal  of  the  township  fund  of  the  townships  and  parts  of  townships 
in  his  county.  The  interests,  rents,  issues,  and  profits  arising  and  accruing 
from  the  principal  of  the  county  fund  shall  be  distributed  to  the  town- 
ships and  parts  of  townships  in  his  county,  as  required  by  the  provisions 
of  this  Act." 


THE  SCHOOL  CENSUS  213 

with  greater  rapidity  in  Chicago  than  in  other  parts  of  the 
county,  the  Board  of  Education  has  decided  that  the  expense 
of  taking  the  census  is  so  great  that  it  is  better  to  do  without 
the  increased  share  of  the  fund  than  to  bear  the  cost  of  an  annual 
enumeration,  and  the  taking  of  a  biennial  census  meets  the 
requirement  of  the  state  law  regarding  the  statistics  to  be  sent 
to  the  state  superintendent  of  public  instruction  for  his  biennial 
report. 

The  Illinois  law  thus  represents  a  view  of  the  school  census 
that  is  now  coming  to  be  regarded  as  obsolete.  It  is  no  longer 
believed  that  there  should  be  a  school  census  merely  to  secure 
an  equitable  distribution  of  school  funds  or  to  furnish  crude 
statistics  to  a  state  superintendent  who  has  little,  if  any,  power 
to  prevent  the  unsatisfactory  conditions  that  might  be  revealed 
by  the  statistics.  On  the  contrary,  the  school  census  is  regarded 
as  a  most  important  means  of  securing  the  thorough  enforce- 
ment of  a  compulsory  attendance  statute.  In  a  chapter  deal- 
ing with  the  subject  of  compulsory  attendance  in  the  annual 
report  for  1912,  the  New  York  State  Department  of  Education 
emphasized  the  importance  of  a  school  census: 

Our  annual  school  census  at  present  forms  the  basis  of  the 
enforcement  of  child  labor  and  attendance  laws,  and  serves  this  end 
only;  yet  the  purpose  sought  is  so  important  and  far  reaching  as  to 
make  the  taking  of  the  census  one  of  the  most  important  duties 
devolving  upon  school  authorities,  because  a  thorough  enforcement 
of  these  laws  is  necessarily  dependent  upon  accurate  and  reliable 
census  information.  However,  we  are  not  proud  of  the  care  and 
interest  manifested  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  in  taking  school 
censuses.  Reliable  census  information  is  more  often  than  otherwise 
lacking  in  cities  and  villages  and  even  in  rural  communities  and  ham- 
lets where  the  census  may  be  taken  easily  and  with  small  expense. 
All  this  is  true,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  law  specifically 
provides  for  the  taking  of  the  census  and  the  filing  of  a  copy  of  same 
in  school  records  available  for  the  use  of  teachers,  attendance  officers, 
inspectors  and  all  others  having  a  right  to  such  information. 


214     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

A  similar  passage  from  the  1910  report  of  the  Massachusetts 
Board  of  Education  confirms  the  view  of  the  school  census 
found  in  the  New  York  report: 

In  more  populous  centers  school  attendance  officers  are  greatly 
handicapped  by  the  absence  of  reliable  information  regarding  the 
children  on  whom  school  attendance  is  obligatory.  An  annual  census 
is  required  in  the  towns  and  cities  of  Massachusetts,  but  this  census 
is  not  taken  in  such  a  way  as  to  furnish  information  which  attendance 
officers  can  use.  Students  of  school  administration  are  agreed  that 
in  more  populous  areas  some  form  of  permanent  registration  of  all 
children  who  come  under  the  school  attendance  laws  [and  it  is  to  be 
remembered,  that  in  some  cases  this  extends  to  the  age  of  eighteen  hi 
Massachusetts]  should  be  provided.  In  connection  with  the  taking 
of  the  annual  school  census  it  would  be  possible  to  provide  a  card 
record  giving  age,  parentage  and  other  data  of  importance,  which 
card  record  could  after  comparison  with  the  registration  of  the 
school,  become  the  basis  on  which  attendance  officers  could  investi- 
gate illegal  absence. 

The  suggestion  made  in  the  foregoing  paragraphs  that,  to 
be  thoroughly  effective  as  a  means  of  enforcing  the  compul- 
sory law,  the  old-fashioned  annual  or  biennial  school  census 
must  be  superseded  by  a  permanent  census  department  has 
already  been  adopted  for  the  larger  cities  in  the  state  of  New 
York.  The  modern  view  is  that  registration  instead  of  enumer- 
ation is  needed  if  the  desired  results  are  to  be  secured.  In  1909 
the  bill  creating  a  permanent  census  bureau  in  every  city  of  the 
first  class  passed  the  New  York  state  legislature,  and  although 
the  machinery  for  the  registration  system  is  still  in  process  of 
being  perfected,  the  immense  service  that  could  be  rendered 
by  such  a  permanent  census  system  was  promptly  demonstrated.1 

1  In  1914  by  an  amendment  to  the  Greater  New  York  charter  some 
radical  changes  were  made  in  the  organization  of  the  permanent  census 
board  in  New  York  City,  and  the  present  Bureau  of  Compulsory  Education, 
School  Census  and  Child  Welfare  was  made  possible.  Further  experi- 
mentation will  undoubtedly  be  needed  before  the  permanent  census  system 
is  perfected,  but  that  such  experimentation  will  result  in  a  vastly  improved 


THE  SCHOOL  CENSUS  215 

How  far  Illinois  has  lagged  behind  in  this  matter  is  indicated 
by  the  fact  that  the  city  of  Chicago  does  not  have  even  an 
annual  census,  and  that  the  biennial  census  is  taken  in  the 
spring  at  a  time  when  little  service  can  be  rendered  by  returning 
children  to  school.  In  the  year  19 10  the  taking  of  the  school 
census  was  turned  over  to  the  Department  of  Compulsory 
Education,  and  the  following  discussion  of  the  Chicago  school 

school  attendance  cannot  be  doubted.  In  fact,  within  two  years  after  the 
passage  of  the  permanent  census  law  of  1909,  the  Department  of  Education 
of  the  state  of  New  York  called  attention  to  the  substantial  results  that  had 
already  been  accomplished.  Thus  the  annual  report  for  1911  states  that 
the  permanent  census  bureaus  were  "still  in  a  tentative  condition,  though 
much  progress  has  been  made  toward  perfecting  their  organization.  The 
work,  however,  has  apparently  progressed  slowly  because  the  lines  upon 
which  the  bureaus  are  being  organized  and  operated  are  entirely  and  neces- 
sarily new.  Such  a  bureau  had  never  before  been  established  in  any  Ameri- 
can city  and,  therefore,  the  setting  up  of  the  bureau  machinery  called  for 
initiative,  sound  judgment,  special  aptitude  and  ability  on  the  part  of 

persons  placed  in  charge  of  the  work Still,  even  at  this  early  day, 

proof  is  not  lacking  of  their  substantial  value  in  connection  with  the  enforce- 
ment of  attendance  laws  as  indicated  by  figures  submitted  in  this  report. 

"The  following  data  are  significant.  In  the  city  of  Rochester,  opera- 
tions of  the  bureau  brought  to  light  518  children  unlawfully  out  of  school. 
These  were  reported  to  the  attendance  division  of  the  city  for  investigation 
and  either  each  child  was  placed  in  school  or  the  case  otherwise  lawfully 
disposed  of. 

"In  the  city  of  Buffalo,  6,318  children  were  found  unlawfully  out  of 
school.  All  of  these  cases  were  reported  to  the  attendance  division  and 
each  properly  investigated  and  satisfactorily  disposed  of. 

"  In  the  city  of  New  York,  23,241  children  were  found  unlawfully  out  of 
school  by  the  census  dragnet,  while  the  initial  enumeration  of  the  city,  for 
reasons  mentioned  in  a  previous  report,  is  not  yet  entirely  completed.  To 
date,  17,231  of  these  cases  have  been  investigated  by  the  city's  attendance 
division  and  properly  disposed  of.  The  others  will  receive  attention  as 
rapidly  as  may  be. 

"The  machinery  of  the  attendance  and  child  labor  laws  has  been  in 
operation  in  these  three  cities  for  over  sixteen  years,  and  with  much  success, 
yet  the  fact  that  the  effort  of  the  bureau  located  over  30,000  children  unlaw- 
fully out  of  school  is  proof  beyond  question  of  the  value  of  these  bureaus 
as  a  very  material  aid  in  the  enforcement  of  attendance  laws." — Eighth 
Annual  Report  of  the  New  York  State  Department  of  Education  (1912),  pp. 
325-26. 


216     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

census  relates  only  to  the  enumerations  that  have  been  made 
under  the  auspices  of  that  department. 

With  regard  to  the  present  methods  of  taking  the  Chicago 
school  census,  the  first  question  to  be  raised  is  the  advisability 
of  taking  the  census  at  the  close  of  the  school  year  in  May  or 
June.  It  does  not  appear  that  this  time  is  selected  because  of 
any  legal  requirement  as  to  the  collection  of  statistics.  And 
if  a  school  census  is  to  be  a  means  of  discovering  children  who 
have  slipped  out  of  school  or  children  who  are  trying  to  slip 
out  of  school,  it  should  be  taken  in  the  early  part  of  the  school 
year,  preferably  in  September  and  certainly  not  later  than 
October.  Children  who  were  then  discovered  out  of  school 
could  be  placed  in  school  and  kept  there  under  the  supervision 
of  the  truant  officers  presumably  for  the  entire  school  year. 
It  is  of  little  value  to  discover  in  May  that  children  are  unen- 
rolled,  to  enter  them  in  school  for  the  few  remaining  weeks  of 
the  school  year,  and  then  to  give  them  the  opportunity  to  lose 
themselves  again  before  the  reopening  of  the  schools  in  the 
fall.  To  secure  its  share  of  the  county  fund,  the  school  dis- 
trict must  send  in  its  data  as  to  the  minor  population  and  school 
enrolment  before  the  first  of  July.  The  theory  underlying  the 
spring  enumeration  may  be  that  the  postponement  is  likely 
to  mean  larger  returns  and  therefore  a  larger  share  of  the 
appropriation.1 

1  Since  the  writing  of  this  chapter  the  school  census  of  1916  has  been 
taken,  but  although  this  census  was  taken  in  the  last  week  of  March,  some- 
what earlier  than  usual,  the  charge  was  made  in  the  Chicago  newspapers 
that  the  change  in  the  time  of  taking  the  census  was  not  a  matter  of 
educational  policy  but  was  due  to  a  desire  to  give  the  city  administration 
a  large  number  of  "jobs"  to  dispose  of  at  a  time  when  they  might  be 
used  to  influence  the  spring  elections  in  favor  of  the  administration  can- 
didates. This  charge  was  denied  by  the  Superintendent  of  Compulsory 
Education  who  nevertheless  persistently  refused  to  publish  the  names  of 
persons  appointed  to  positions  as  enumerators.  There  is,  of  course, 
every  reason  why  the  census  enumerators  and  supervisors  should  all  be 
selected  by  civil-service  methods. 


THE  SCHOOL  CENSUS 


217 


The  objection  is  raised  that  too  many  families  have  not 
returned  to  the  city  in  September  to  make  this  a  desirable 
month  for  enumeration,  but  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  only 
a  very  small  proportion  of  the  child  population  of  Chicago 
belongs  to  the  fortunate  class  that  migrates  from  the  city  in 
the  summer  and  remains  away  through  September.  This  may 
be  a  conspicuous  portion  of  the  population,  but  it  is  not  a  large 
portion. 

But  the  astonishing  fact  about  the  Chicago  school  census 
is  that  it  seems  to  be  useless  as  a  means  of  discovering  either 
unenrolled  children  or  children  unlawfully  absent  from  school. 
In  fact,  according  to  the  tables  that  are  published  in  the  school 
census  for  1910,  for  1912,  and  for  1914,  there  is  apparently  no 
difference  between  the  total  number  of  children  in  Chicago 
between  seven  and  fourteen  years  of  age  and  the  number  of 
children  in  that  age  group  who  are  enrolled  in  school.  For 
example,  the  total  number  of  children  between  seven  and  four- 
teen attending  school  in  1914  is  said  to  be  285,878;  the  total 
population  between  seven  and  fourteen  is  285,878.  Table 
XXVII  compiled  from  the  three  school  census  reports  that 
have  been  issued  by  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education 
seems  to  indicate  that  the  total  enrolment  corresponds  exactly 
with  the  total  minor  population. 

TABLE  XXVII 

NUMBER  OF  CHILDREN  BETWEEN  SEVEN  AND  FOURTEEN  YEARS  OF  AGE 

ATTENDING  SCHOOL  AND  TOTAL  POPULATION  OF  CHICAGO 

BETWEEN  SEVEN  AND  FOURTEEN  YEARS  OF  AGE 

(Compiled  from  the  School  Census  Reports  for  1910,  1912,  and  1914) 


ATTEND  IN 

G  SCHOOL 

Nor  IN  SCHOOL 
FOR  30 

TOTAL 

TOTAL  POPULA- 
TION OF  CHICAGO 

Public 

Private 

CONSECUTIVE 
DAYS 

SCHOOL 

BETWEEN 
7  AND  14 

IQIO.  . 

186,344 

^T>'M4 

3,768 

251,556 

251,556 

IQI2  .  . 

187,120 

68,911 

2,410 

258,450 

258,450 

IQI4.  .  . 

2IO.227 

74,141 

I^IO 

285,878 

28?,878 

218     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

The  statement  that  the  total  school  enrolment  and  the  total 
minor  population  seem  to  correspond  exactly  is  made  on  the 
assumption  that  children  who  are  classified  as  "not  in  school 
for  thirty  consecutive  days"  are  enrolled  children.  The  tables 
given  in  the  school  census  do  not  include  such  classes  as  "num- 
ber of  children  unenrolled"  or  "number  of  children  unlawfully 
absent  from  school."  Nor  does  there  seem  to  be  any  place 
in  the  classification  for  the  children  who  are  not  attending 
school  because  of  mental  and  physical  incapacity,  although  it 
is  unnecessary  to  point  out  that  there  are  a  considerable 
number  of  such  children  in  Chicago.  These  children,  like 
the  unenrolled  children  that  are  found,  must  be  included  under 
the  heading  "not  in  school  for  30  days"  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  they  are  not  in  school  at  all. 

In  the  text  accompanying  the  tables  in  the  last  school  census, 
that  of  1914,  there  is  to  be  found  under  the  heading  "Attend- 
ance Conditions"  the  following  statement  which  seems  to  be 
the  only  explanation  of  what  is  meant  by  the  classification 
"not  in  school  for  thirty  consecutive  days": 

There  are  285,878  children  of  compulsory  attendance  age 
(between  seven  and  fourteen  years)  in  the  city Of  this  num- 
ber only  1,510  were  absent  from  school  thirty  consecutive  days 
preceding  May  4,  1914.  Investigation  by  truant  officers  (who  fol- 
lowed up  the  work  of  the  enumerators  to  co-operate  for  the  promotion 
of  attendance)  showed  that  with  few  exceptions,  these  1,510  children 
were  enrolled  either  at  public  or  private  schools  and  were  temporarily 
absent  for  cause  and  excused  on  account  of  illness,  under  suspension, 
accident,  misfortune  in  the  family,  or  extenuating  circumstances  that 
justified  temporary  absence.  In  a  few  instances  where  they  were 
not  enrolled,  or  were  truants,  they  were  immediately  placed  in  school 
by  truant  officers.1 

The  italic  in  the  sentences  above  is  not  found  in  the  report, 
but  has  been  added  merely  to  call  attention  to  these  significant 

1  Report  of  the  Chicago  School  Census  of  1914,  p.  4. 


THE  SCHOOL  CENSUS  219 

words.  For  it  appears  that  "in  a  few  instances"  the  classi- 
fication "not  in  school  for  thirty  days"  includes  children  who 
were  out  of  school  for  more  than  thirty  days  and  children  who 
were  not  enrolled  in  school  at  all.  It  is  admitted,  then,  in  the 
text  accompanying  the  statistical  tables  that  there  are  some 
cases  of  unenrolled  children  found  by  the  census  enumerators, 
but  it  is  not  considered  worth  while,  even  in  a  report  of  twenty- 
four  printed  pages,  to  tell  either  the  number  of  unenrolled 
children  discovered  or  the  number  of  children  unlawfully 
absent  from  school  when  the  enumeration  was  made.  Would 
a  truant  or  any  other  child  found  by  the  census  enumerators 
to  be  unlawfully  absent  from  school  but  who  had  not,  at  the 
time  of  the  enumeration,  been  absent  thirty  consecutive  days 
be  counted  in  the  groups  "attending  public  or  private  schools"  ? 
This  appears  to  be  the  case,  and  it  seems  only  fair  to  ask  that 
since  the  census  enumerators  must  have  been  instructed  to 
deal  with  such  cases  some  account  of  their  number  should  have 
been  published. 

Moreover,  it  is  not  clear  on  what  authority  children  are 
classified  as  "attending  school"  or  "absent  for  thirty  days." 
Is  the  statement  of  the  parent  accepted  without  verification, 
or  are  the  school  records  and  the  school  census  sheets  compared 
in  order  to  determine  these  facts  ? 

Further  discussion  of  such  a  cause  of  absence  as  "under 
suspension"  should  be  given.  It  is  desirable  to  know  exactly 
how  many  children  in  Chicago  have  been  excluded  from  school 
in  this  way,  and  it  is  only  fair  to  ask  whether  we  have  not  yet 
resources  in  the  way  of  truant  rooms  and  parental  school  cot- 
tages to  prevent  the  suspension  of  children  for  thirty  days. 

A  wasteful  feature  of  the  Chicago  school  census  is  that  so 
much  space  is  given  to  matters  having  no  connection  with  the 
question  of  school  attendance;  in  the  1914  census,  for  example, 
the  entire  adult  as  well  as  minor  population  was  enumerated, 
and  the  right  of  the  Board  of  Education  to  spend  money  on 


220     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

enumerating  the  adult  population  of  Chicago  might  well  be 
questioned.  Much  irrelevant  matter  is  also  to  be  found  in  the 
text.  There  is,  for  example,  a  discussion  of  "our  infant  inhab- 
itants" in  Chicago,  the  number  of  wards  having  the  largest 
number  of  babies,  "births  and  deaths,"  "occupational  popu- 
lation," "occupational  population  of  the  Loop  district,"  decen- 
nial increases  in  the  Chicago  population  since  1840,  and  other 
matters  which  may  be  of  some  interest  to  someone  but  which 
seem  to  have  no  relation  to  the  enforcement  of  a  compulsory 
education  law.  Certainly  such  matters  could  well  be  sacrificed 
to  a  more  detailed  presentation  of  facts  regarding  non-attendance. 
In  general,  the  objections  to  the  present  system  of  taking 
the  census  in  Chicago  may  be  summarized  as  follows : 

1.  A  biennial  census  is  inadequate  as  a  means  of  enforcing 
the  attendance  law. 

2.  The  school  census  should  be  confined  to  the  enumeration 
of  minors.    The  last  school  census,  of  1914,  was  a  census  of  the 
entire  population.     The  superintendent  of  compulsory  edu- 
cation recommended  in  the  first  census  taken  under  his  super- 
vision that  the  "biennial  school  census  should  include  all  ages, 
adults  as  well  as  minors  in  federal  census  years  as  well  as  other 
periods."    This  would  seem  to  imply  that  the  primary  purpose 
of  the  census  taking  was  to  count,  at  least  biennially,  the  whole 
Chicago  population  and  not  to  aid  in  the  enforcement  of  the 
compulsory  law.     If  the  latter  object  were  desired,  it  would 
have  been  wiser  to  recommend  that  the  money  be  expended 
for  an  annual  census  of  the  minor  population.1 

1  See  School  Census,  1910:  "The  city  of  Chicago,  through  the  agency  of 
the  Board  of  Education  should  take  a  municipal  census  every  two  years  to 
insure  a  full  and  accurate  count  of  its  adult  population  as  well  as  its  minors 
and  complete  nativity  statistics  of  all  inhabitants  who  mark  the  progress 
of  a  civic  growth,  which  is  the  pride  of  the  Chicagoan  and  the  envy  of  the 
world."  This  last  sentence  seems  to  indicate  only  too  plainly  that  the 
school  census  is  to  be  taken  in  order  that  we  may  have  an  annual  excuse  for 
glorifying  our  bigness,  not  because  school  attendance  is  important. 


THE  SCHOOL  CENSUS  221 

3.  The  time  of  the  taking  of  the  school  census  should  be 
changed  from  the  end  to  the  beginning  of  the  school  year.     If 
the  census  is  to  be  a  means  of  enforcing  the  compulsory  law, 
then  it  should  be  taken,  not  in  May  or  June,  but  in  September 
or  October.     Children  placed  in  school  in  May  will  disappear 
again  before  the  next  autumn.     Children  placed  in  school  in 
September  or  October  should  be  there  for  an  entire  year.     It  is 
another  indication  of  the  failure  to  understand  the  use  of  the 
census  in  connection  with  the  enforcement  of  the  school  attend- 
ance requirements  that  in  the  census  reports  of  1910  the  follow- 
ing recommendation  was  made:   "The  school  census  should  be 
taken  in  June  and  July  when  the  teachers  and  truant  officers 
are  idle.     With  these  trained  experts  as  supervisors  and  enu- 
merators in  the  canvass,  it  would  prove  prolific  of  good  results." 
It  is  not  clear  just  what  the  value  would  be  of  discovering  in 
July,  when  the  schools  have  been  closed  for  a  two  months' 
summer  vacation,  that  certain  children  had  not  attended  school 
during  the  past  year.     Certainly  cases  of  children  unlawfully 
absent  from  school  could  not  be  discovered  when  the  schools 
were  not  in  session. 

4.  The  method  of  presenting  the  statistical  results  should  be 
entirely  reorganized.     It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  this  matter 
in  detail  since  the  analysis  of  the  statistics  that  appear  in  the 
1914  census  report  shows  how  impossible  it  is  to  obtain  from 
them   such   important   facts   as   the   number   of    unenrolled 
children,  the  number  of  children  enrolled  but  unlawfully  ab- 
sent, the  number  of  mentally  and  physically  defective  chil- 
dren who  have  been  found  unenrolled  and  who  are  found 
upon  examination  by  the  Department  of  Child-Study  to  be 
either  fit  for  special  rooms  or  institutions  or  whose  condition 
is  such  that  no  provision  is  made  for  them  under  our  present 
system. 

Plans  for  the  future  need  not  be  made  in  detail  for  the 
improvement  of  a  system  that  is  so  barren  of  results.    The 


222     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

most  important  question  to  be  raised  here  is  concerning  the 
official  or  department  under  whose  auspices  the  enumeration 
is  to  be  made.  Close  as  is  the  connection  between  the  school 
census  and  the  work  of  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Edu- 
cation, it  is  doubtful  whether  or  not  a  department  should  be 
asked  to  make  a  report  which  might  seem  to  indicate  that  its 
own  work  was  inefficient.  A  school  census  taken  with  thor- 
oughness and  care  in  a  city  as  large  as  Chicago  is  bound  to 
discover  a  very  considerable  number  of  unenrolled  and  unlaw- 
fully absent  children.  It  is  probable  that  any  compulsory 
department  would  be  reluctant  to  discover  such  facts.1  If  this 
is  true  then  the  taking  of  the  school  census  should  be  trans- 
ferred to  some  other  department,  possibly  the  department  of 
statistics. 

If  the  hope  of  an  efficient  state  educational  board  or  com- 
mission were  not  an  impracticable  one  at  the  present  time,  it 
would  be  suggested  that  the  census  taking  for  the  whole  state 
should  be  done  directly  under  state  authority.  The  local 
authorities  should  not  be  asked  to  supervise  and  report  on  the 
enforcement  of  the  compulsory  education  law  any  more  than 

1  Thus,  after  the  work  of  taking  the  school  census  had  been  given  to 
the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education,  each  census  report  contained 
a  statement  to  the  effect  that  school  attendance  had  never  been  better. 
In  the  census  report  of  1910  (p.  4,  paragraph  headed  "Temporary  Absen- 
tees"), we  are  told  that  "in  comparison  to  the  great  increase  in  enrolment 
and  membership  and  the  perennial  illness  incidental  to  childhood,  the 
attendance  conditions  are  the  best  within  the  life  of  the  schools."  In  1912, 
in  the  synopsis  of  his  census  report,  the  superintendent  of  compulsory 
education  in  his  capacity  of  census-taker  noted  that  he  found  "attendance 
conditions  at  the  public  and  private  schools,  of  children  between  seven  and 
fourteen  years  [the  compulsory  attendance  age]  the  best  within  the  life  of 
Chicago"  (p.  3).  And  again  in  the  school  census  of  1914  (p.  4)  we  are  told 
by  the  same  authority  that "  the  reports  from  principals  at  the  public  schools 
and  teachers  in  charge  of  the  private  schools  verified  the  fact  that  attend- 
ance conditions  were  the  best  [among  children  of  compulsory  education  age 
in  particular]  within  the  history  of  the  schools"  (p.  4). 


THE  SCHOOL  CENSUS  223 

upon  the  enforcement  of  the  child  labor  law.1  A  permanent 
state  census  board  could  be  established  which  should  be  con- 
tinuously active,  taking  the  census  in  the  opening  of  the  school 
year  in  the  larger  cities,  then  enumerating  for  the  small  towns 
and  rural  districts,  then  returning  to  check  up  again  on  the 
larger  cities,  and  so  on  in  rotation. 

Failing  such  a  system,  plans  might  be  laid  looking  toward 
the  establishment  of  a  system  of  continuous  enumeration  or 
permanent  census  bureau  in  Chicago.  Such  a  system  could  be 
most  easily  carried  on  at  present  by  the  different  principals. 
That  is,  in  each  school  might  be  kept  a  file  containing  an  up-to- 
date  register  of  each  house  in  the  district,  showing  the  number 
of  children  in  each  family  in  each  house.  This  would  mean 
that  each  principal  should  have  a  clerk  or  clerks  whose  business 
it  would  be  to  keep  this  file  up  to  date  somewhat  after  the 
manner  in  which  the  "school  visitor"  in  an  English  city  keeps 
up  his  lists.  These  principals'  clerks  or  visitors  might  combine 
the  work  of  keeping  up  their  file  with  the  visiting  teacher  work 
which  is  described  in  the  following  chapter.  The  work  of  the 
Department  of  Compulsory  Attendance  need  not  be  done  away 
with  since  the  court  work  could  all  be  left  to  this  department. 

1  No  attempt  has  been  made  in  these  pages  to  discuss  the  use  of  the 
school  census  as  a  means  of  securing  an  equitable  distribution  of  funds. 
Quite  properly  the  state  law  specifies  that  the  distribution  of  the  state  fund 
among  the  different  counties  should  be  only  on  the  basis  of  a  state  or  federal 
enumeration  evidently  on  the  supposition  that  the  temptation  to  exaggerate 
the  title  to  funds  would  be  too  great  for  the  authorities  of  some  of  the 
counties  concerned.  The  question  might  be  raised  as  to  whether  this  is  not 
true  also  of  distribution  within  the  county  which  is  now  based  on  local 
returns.  The  whole  situation  would  be  easily  improved  if  all  the  work  of 
enumeration  were  under  state  control.  The  question  might  also  be  raised 
here  as  to  whether  school  funds  should  be  distributed  on  the  basis  of  the 
minor  population  instead  of  on  the  basis  of  the  minor  population  attending 
school.  In  the  early  days,  it  will  be  remembered,  teachers  were  paid  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  days  their  pupils  attended  school.  See,  for 
example,  Appendix  IV,  doc.  2,  sec.  4,  pp.  433-34. 


224     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Recalcitrant  parents  and  "habitual  truants"  might  be  referred 
to  truant  officers  for  prosecution,  while  the  persistent  search 
after  the  non-attending  child  should  be  done  by  a  large  staff 
of  officers  working  on  each  day's  list  of  absences  for  each  indi- 
vidual school. 

Plans  looking  toward  a  permanent  school  census  system 
under  state  control  should  not  be  considered  revolutionary 
since  they  are  already  being  considered  in  Massachusetts,  where 
a  state  board  of  education  already  has  wide  authority.  In  fact, 
this  chapter  may  well  be  brought  to  a  close  with  the  following 
extract  from  a  discussion  of  this  subject  in  the  Annual  Report 
of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Education  for  1909-10: 

Probably  of  more  serious  consequence  educationally  than  the 
relatively  small  number  of  cases  of  truancy  which  occur  is  the  large 
amount  of  irregular  attendance  for  which  there  is  no  sufficient  reason. 
It  is  now  impracticable  to  measure  this,  because  no  one  assembles  at 
the  close  of  each  school  year  the  attendance  statistics  of  all  children, 
whether  in  public  or  private  schools  or  at  work.  Until  this  is  done, 
no  satisfactory  means  can  be  found  for  determining  the  exact  loss  to 
school  children  through  preventable  irregular  attendance. 

For  these  and  other  reasons  it  may  in  time  prove  desirable  for 
the  Board  to  extend  its  work  in  such  a  way  as  to  provide  some  inspec- 
tion or  supervision  of  the  enforcement  of  compulsory  attendance 
laws.  At  least  one  of  the  agents  of  the  Board  has  in  the  past  given 
some  attention  to  this  matter,  especially  in  cases  where  local  authori- 
ties were  indifferent.  The  effect  has  been  most  salutary.  A  state 
agent  carries  a  large  weight  of  authority  when  he  goes  into  a  com- 
munity with  the  view  of  co-operating  in  the  effort  to  deal  with 
recalcitrant  parents  and  of  inducing  school  committees  and  super- 
intendents to  be  more  active  in  enforcing  the  law.  Furthermore,  it 
would  be  the  duty  of  a  state  agent  employed  for  this  particular 
purpose,  to  develop  a  system  of  registration  which  should  be  carried 
out  by  attendance  officers.  It  has  been  sufficiently  demonstrated 
that  to  keep  up  this  registration  would  not  greatly  increase  the 
responsibility  of  these  officers,  and  it  would,  on  the  other  hand, 


THE  SCHOOL  CENSUS  225 

materially  strengthen  their  position  in  enforcing  attendance.  What 
is  needed  is  an  inventory  and  record  of  the  children  in  the  community 
who  are  legally  required  to  attend  school.  In  co-operation  with  the 
teachers,  it  would  be  a  simple  matter  to  record  on  individual  cards 
at  the  close  of  each  year  the  details  of  attendance,  whether  in  parochial 
or  public  schools.  In  this  way,  interested  individuals  would  always 
be  able  to  locate  all  children  of  the  community  with  whom  the  state 
is  concerned,  and  it  would  be  possible  also  from  time  to  time  to 
measure  the  amount  of  school  attendance. 

Connecticut  has  a  satisfactory  mechanism  of  just  this  sort. 
The  state  attendance  officers  are  called  upon  to  deal  with  difficult 
cases,  the  enforcement  of  which  would  prove  a  burden  on  school 
committees  and  superintendents.  In  the  near  future  it  would  seem 
desirable  for  Massachusetts  to  establish  some  similar  procedure. 

Is  it  too  much  to  hope  that  Illinois  may  also  become  pro- 
gressive enough  in  educational  matters  to  consider  the  adoption 
of  a  similar  policy  ? 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  VISITING  TEACHER  AS  A  REMEDY  FOR  TRUANCY  AND 
NON-ATTENDANCE 

A  study  of  the  cases  of  non-attendance  and  truancy  already 
cited  cannot  fail  to  bring  conviction  as  to  the  inadequacy  of 
present  methods  of  treatment.  The  statute  provides  for  a  corps 
of  truant  officers  whose  duty  it  is  to  return  children  to  school. 
As  to  the  adequacy  of  the  service,  attention  might  be  called  to 
the  fact  that  the  number  of  truant  officers  seems  very  small 
when  compared  with  the  number  maintained  in  some  other 
cities.  London,  for  example,  maintains  390,  or  one  officei  for 
every  1,900  children;  New  York  felt  in  1913  very  inadequately 
equipped  with  only  100  officers,  or  one  to  every  7,000  children; 
while  Chicago  felt  that  its  work  was  properly  done,  "truancy 
being  less  than  i  per  cent  of  the  enrolment  in  both  public  and  pri- 
vate schools,"  with  only  53  officers,  or  one  to  every  8,419  children. 
The  statute  provides  also  for  the  prosecution  of  recalcitrant 
parents  and  for  the  commitment  of  truant  and  incorrigible  boys 
to  the  Parental  School.  But  to  return  the  child  to  school  today, 
without  trying  to  deal  with  the  influences  that  kept  him  out 
yesterday,  is  likely  to  mean  that  he  will  be  absent  again  tomor- 
row or  at  some  later  date,  when  he  may  or  may  not  be  discovered 
by  an  officer  of  the  department;  to  prosecute  the  parent  may 
effect  a  temporary  improvement  in  the  child's  school  attendance, 
but  if  a  parent  is  so  lacking  in  intelligence  with  reference  to  his 
child's  schooling  as  to  require  prosecution,  he  probably  needs 
help  of  other  kinds  in  order  that  he  may  better  understand  and 
fulfil  the  duty  he  owes  his  child.  Moreover,  it  has  been  pointed 
out  that  there  is  great  waste  in  committing  a  child  to  the 
Parental  School  on  the  ground  that  there  is  no  hope  in  his  home 
surroundings  of  an  improvement  in  his  conduct  or  school  attend- 
ance, and  then  in  a  few  months  returning  him  to  the  surround- 

226 


THE  VISITING  TEACHER  227 

ings  in  which  he  has  been  demoralized.  It  is  the  old  story  of 
the  vicious  circle. 

What  seems  to  be  needed  is  the  application  to  the  problems 
of  non-attendance  and  truancy  of  the  same  methods  of  treat- 
ment that  are  applied  to  other  social  problems.  For,  while 
non-attendance  and  truancy  are  school  problems,  they  are  of 
a  social  rather  than  of  an  educational  character.  It  has  been 
difficult  for  the  community  to  realize  that  the  problems  of  the 
school  are  not  wholly  educational.  A  large  group  of  questions 
today,  such  as  school  meals,  school  nurses,  open-air  schools, 
employment  supervision,  social  centers,  and  all  the  attempts 
to  see  that  the  children  get  medical  care  and  special  treatment 
when  necessary  are  obviously  social  problems,  and  only  edu- 
cational in  that  the  efficiency  of  the  educational  work  depends 
upon  their  being  properly  understood  and  solved.  In  this 
group  of  social-educational  problems  properly  belongs,  too,  the 
prevention  of  non-attendance  and  truancy.  These  new  school 
functions  which  have  grown  up  with  the  idea  that  there  is  a 
responsibility  on  the  community  to  see  that  each  child  is  given 
at  least  a  minimum  of  child-care  have  made  clear  the  necessity 
of  co-operation  on  the  part  of  the  school  with  the  work  of  the 
various  social  agencies  in  the  community. 

The  proposal  that  the  school  should  avail  itself  of  the  serv- 
ices of  the  social  worker  is  not  a  novel  suggestion.  The 
English  school  system,  as  it  has  taken  over  the  various  social 
activities  involved  in  feeding  necessitous  children,  securing 
attendance,  finding  employment,  and  establishing  a  school 
medical  service  and  school  clinics,  has  developed  effective 
machinery  of  a  social  character  under  the  form  of  Care  Com- 
mittees.1 And  in  New  York  and  Boston  the  use  of  the  home 

'See  Margaret  Frere,  Children's  Care  Committees  (London,  1909); 
Douglas  Pepler,  The  Care  Committee:  The  Child  and  the  Parent  (London, 
1912);  and  Finding  Employment  for  Children  Who  Leave  the  Grade  Schools 
to  Go  to  Work,  pp.  41-48:  "Public  Care  of  Working-Children  in  England 
and  Germany,"  by  E.  Abbott. 


228     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

and  school  visitor,  or  visiting  teacher  as  she  may  be  called,  has 
been  carried  beyond  the  experimental  stage.1  In  New  York, 
the  Public  Education  Association  has  maintained  since  1907 
a  staff  of  seven  visiting  teachers,  and  more  recently  provision 
has  been  made  in  the  public  school  system  for  an  additional 
number  of  visiting  teachers  supported  by  the  public  funds. 

The  work  of  the  visiting  teacher  has  been  described  as 
"social  work,"  and  her  work,  if  effective,  must  be  based  on  the 
principles  of  what  is  known  as  good  "case  work,"  which  means 
a  thorough  understanding  and  specialized  treatment  of  each 
individual  case.  It  means  also  knowledge  of  such  social 
agencies  as  the  community  may  have  provided  and  resourceful- 
ness in  utilizing  those  agencies.  It  seems  scarcely  necessary 
to  explain  that  "case  work"  was  once  supposed  to  be  peculiar 
to  the  work  of  charity  organization  or  relief  societies,  perhaps 
because  investigation  was  thought  to  prevent  relieving  the  "  un- 
worthy" poor.  It  now  characterizes  the  work  of  all  effective 
social  agencies. 

A  detailed  account  of  the  visiting  teacher's  work  has  been 
given  in  reports  issued  by  the  Public  Education  Association  of 
New  York.  For  example,  the  most  recent  report  shows  that 
out  of  873  children  dealt  with  by  the  visiting  teachers  in  1913-14, 
their  assistance  was  asked  in  215  cases,  or  24.6  per  cent  of 
the  whole  number,  because  of  school  maladjustment;  in  171, 
or  19.6  per  cent,  because  of  ill-health;  in  38,  or  4.4  per  cent, 
because  of  difficulties  due  to  individual  peculiarity;  in  172,  or 
19 .7  per  cent,  because  of  economic  stress  in  the  family;  in  209, 
or  23 .9  per  cent,  because  of  lack  of  family  co-operation;  in  43, 
or  4 .9  per  cent,  because  of  unmoral  conditions  in  the  home;  in 
25,  or  2  .9  per  cent,  because  of  adverse  neighborhood  conditions. 
To  secure  the  necessary  readjustments  in  these  cases  the  city 

'Dr.  Richard  C.  Cabot,  "Body  and  Soul  in  Work  for  Children,"  in 
The  Child  in  the  City,  p.  18.  See  also  the  annual  reports  of  Boston  Home 
and  School  Association. 


THE  VISITING  TEACHER  229 

departments  of  Education,  Police,  Health,  and  Labor,  the 
Tenement  House  Department,  agencies  for  relief  and  correc- 
tion, health  agencies  of  various  kinds,  neighborhood  agencies 
like  settlements,  employment  agencies,  and  other  educational 
institutions  were  drawn  in.1 

Through  the  efforts,  then,  of  the  school  visitor,  medical 
care  and  treatment  are  obtained,  relief  may  be  secured  for  the 
family  through  the  proper  agencies,  employment  found  for  a 
father  or  an  older  brother;  the  other  children  may  likewise  be 
aided  in  various  ways;  the  child  under  care  may  be  tutored  or 
connected  with  some  settlement  group,  or  some  special  oppor- 
tunity for  play  may  be  found  for  him,  or  perhaps  he  may  be 
transferred  to  another  room  or  school,  all  to  the  end  and  with 
the  result  that  the  purpose  for  which  the  elaborate  and  costly 
school  system  is  established,  the  building  erected,  the  trained 
teacher  placed  in  that  particular  place  at  that  time  (namely, 
that  that  particular  child,  with  the  other  children,  shall  receive 
at  least  the  statutory  minimum  of  education),  shall  be  fulfilled. 
In  rendering  these  services  all  the  resources  of  the  community 
are  drawn  upon,  "to  the  end  that  conditions  in  the  lives  of 

1  See  Public  Education  Association  of  City  of  New  York,  Bulletin 
No.  15,  April  5,  1913,  The  Visiting  Teacher,  a  report  by  Mary  Flexner; 
also  The  Visiting  Teacher  in  New  York  City,  a  statement  of  the  function 
and  an  analysis  of  the  work  of  the  visiting  teacher  staff  of  the  Public  Edu- 
cation Association  from  1912  to  1915  inclusive,  by  Harriet  Johnson,  June, 
1916.  Attention  should  be  called  to  the  fact  that  the  visiting-teacher  work 
was  not  initiated  by  the  Public  Education  Association,  but  was  taken  over 
after  the  value  of  the  work  had  been  demonstrated  by  the  employment  of 
visiting  teachers  by  several  settlements.  See  also  Truancy,  A  Study  of  the 
Mental,  Physical,  and  Social  Factors  of  the  Problem  of  Non-attendance  at 
School,  by  Elizabeth  Irwin,  published  by  the  same  association  in  June, 
1915;  and  see  Schools  and  Social  Reform,  report  of  Unionist  Social  Reform 
Committee  on  Education,  by  S.  J.  G.  Hoare,  M.P.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  the  first  National  Conference  of  Visiting  Teachers  was  held  in  New 
York  in  July,  1916,  during  the  meeting  there  of  the  National  Education 
Association. 


230     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

children  may  be  so  adjusted  that  they  may  make  more  normal 
and  more  profitable  school  progress."  Incidentally,  the  work 
of  the  regular  teacher  is  rendered  not  only  more  efficient  but 
more  intelligent,  sympathetic,  and  interesting,  and  incidentally, 
too,  the  families  of  the  children  cared  for  are  enabled  to  under- 
stand much  more  clearly  than  would  otherwise  be  possible, 
what  the  school  system  is  intended  to  do  for  them  and  their 
children. 

In  Chicago  certain  services  of  this  general  character  have 
for  the  past  five  years  been  rendered  in  connection  with  the 
"case  work"  done  in  the  Employment  Supervision  Bureau 
which  is  now  a  part  of  the  Chicago  public  school  system. 
This  bureau1  attempts  to  find  employment  for  the  children 
who  leave  the  grade  schools  to  go  to  work,  but  many  children 
are  persuaded  by  the  workers  of  the  bureau  to  continue  in 
school,  and  in  other  cases,  in  connection  with  aiding  the  children 
who  ask  help  of  this  special  character,  very  important  services 
are  rendered  to  other  children  in  the  family  who  are  still  attend- 
ing school.  Not  only  has  the  Employment  Supervision  Bureau 
shown  the  importance  of  a  social  agency  at  work  within  the 
school  system,  but  in  the  last  few  months  of  the  school  year 
1915-16  the  employment  of  a  visiting-teacher  in  the  Jones 
School  by  a  committee  of  the  Chicago  Woman's  Club  has  shown 
the  valuable  results  to  be  obtained  from  such  work.  In  an 
unpublished  report  by  this  visiting  teacher,  it  appears  that 
children  were  sent  to  her  for  the  following  reasons:  assistance 
believed  to  be  needed  by  the  family,  non-attendance  or  mis- 
conduct, poor  scholarship,  physical  or  mental  subnormality, 
illegally  selling  papers  out  of  school  hours,  bodily  uncleanliness, 
information  as  to  home  conditions  desired  by  the  principal,  and 
so  on.  The  work  of  this  visiting  teacher  may  be  illustrated 
by  the  treatment  of  the  following  cases  that  were  referred  to  her. 

1  See  Appendix  VII,  "The  Development  of  the  Chicago  Bureau  of 
Employment  Supervision." 


THE  VISITING  TEACHER  231 

A  teacher  reported  that  M —  — ,  who  was  absent  one  or 
two  days  each  week,  claimed  that  she  was  obliged  to  help  with 
the  washing  and  ironing  for  the  family  because  her  mother  was 
ill.  The  visiting  teacher  went  to  the  home  but  found  that  the 
mother  showed  no  signs  of  ill-health.  The  visiting  teacher 
then  asked  the  Visiting  Nurses  Association  to  send  a  nurse  to 
the  home  in  order  to  find  out  if  the  mother's  condition  necessi- 
tated M —  — 's  absence.  The  nurse  secured  a  statement  from 
the  mother's  physician  saying,  "there  is  absolutely  no  reason 
why  the  children  should  be  kept  out  of  school  to  help  her." 
The  visiting  teacher  then  reported  to  the  grade  teacher,  and 
M —  — 's  excuse  of  being  needed  at  home  has  not  since  been 
accepted  and  her  attendance  has  been  regular. 

F—  — 's  teacher  reported  that  his  mother  wanted  to  take 

him  out  of  school  so  that  he  might  go  to  work.  F is  in 

the  fourth  grade.  A  visit  was  made  to  the  home,  and  the  mother 
was  persuaded  that  F—  — 's  continuance  in  school  would  be 
worth  the  sacrifice  it  entailed.  Just  a  month  later  the  teacher 
reported  F—  — 's  absence.  Another  visit  was  made  to  the 

home;  it  was  found  that  F had  been  staying  out  of  school 

because  of  a  sore  on  his  neck,  and  the  visiting  teacher,  suspect- 
ing tuberculosis,  made  an  arrangement  to  have  the  boy  exam- 
ined by  the  school  doctor.  As  a  result  he  was  taken  to  the 
Municipal  Tuberculosis  Sanitarium  Dispensary,  where  the 
trouble  was  diagnosed  as  tuberculosis  of  the  glands.  An 
application  was  made  to  place  F—  -  in  the  Municipal 
Tuberculosis  Sanitarium  for  the  summer.  The  visiting 
teacher  kept  in  touch  with  the  boy  until  he  was  able  to  return 
to  school. 

J—  -  was  reported  as  frequently  absent.  The  visiting 
teacher  found  that  the  family  of  six  lived  in  two  rooms  in  the 
rear  of  a  deplorably  dirty  tenement  and  that  the  little  boy  was 
kept  home  to  care  for  two  sisters,  aged  five  and  three,  while  his 
widowed  mother  went  out  washing.  In  this  case  the  woman 


232     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

was  found  to  be  eligible  for  a  "widow's  pension,"  and  steps  were 
immediately  taken  to  secure  the  pension  for  her. 

Further  evidence  that  the  assistance  of  social  workers  is 
needed  by  the  schools  is  to  be  found  in  the  number  of  cases  of 
children  referred  by  the  schools  to  the  various  social  agencies  of 
Chicago.  For  example,  a  report  of  the  Juvenile  Protective 
Association  prepared  in  April,  1916,  discussed  the  cases  con- 
cerning school  children  which  were  proving  a  heavy  addition 
to  the  "case  work"  of  that  organization.  According  to  this 
unpublished  report,  it  appears  that  out  of  a  total  of  886  cases 
received  by  the  Association  during  the  three  months  of  Jan- 
uary, February,  and  March,  1916,  126  were  school  cases.  This 
does  not  include  all  cases  of  school  children  handled  by  the 
association,  but  only  the  cases  in  which  the  assistance  of  the 
officers  of  the  association  was  asked  in  dealing  directly  with 
the  child's  relationship  to  the  school. 

These  126  cases  involving  school  children  (which  means,  of 
course,  a  total  of  more  than  126  children)  included  85  com- 
plaints which  came  from  the  school  authorities  themselves  in 
addition  to  complaints  from  outsiders.  Of  the  85  cases  coming 
from  the  schools  themselves  14  concerned  attendance;  26,  the 
physical  condition  of  school  children ;  8  were  cases  of  subnormal 
children;  12  were  cases  of  bad  environment;  14  involved  a 
more  general  problem  of  child  welfare;  -4  were  miscellaneous 
complaints  received  by  schools  and  transferred;  4  were  cases 
of  boys  who  were  incorrigible  in  school;  and  3  were  cases  of 
children  stealing  in  school. 

In  the  two  following  cases  illustrations  are  furnished  of  the 
14  cases  concerning  attendance  submitted  by  the  schools. 
In  the  case  of  the  J—  -  family  there  was  a  complaint 
of  bad  home  conditions,  and  the  principal  of  the  school  asked 
the  association  to  undertake  the  work  of  improving  the  home 
influences,  while  the  school  would  at  the  same  time  exert 
all  possible  pressure  to  secure  regular  school  attendance.  In 


THE  VISITING  TEACHER  233 

the  case  of  the  F—  -  family  there  was  a  similar  complaint 
of  bad  home  conditions,  and  the  association  was  asked  to  make 
a  report  on  the  family  situation  that  would  enable  the  school 
to  deal  more  intelligently  with  the  attendance  problem.  But 
in  this  case  the  truant  officer  had  also  been  asked  to  investigate 
the  home,  and  had  the  association  attempted  an  investigation 
there  would  have  been  the  difficulty  of  having  two  social  work- 
ers representing  different  organizations  both  attempting  to  deal 
with  the  same  family  with  confusing  results. 

The  truant  officer  is  referred  to  as  a  social  worker,  and  so 
she  should  be.  But  the  work  of  these  officers  too  often  falls 
short  of  the  standard  of  good  social  work  in  this  community. 
This  point  is  best  illustrated  by  the  failure  of  the  truant  officers 
to  make  use  of  the  social  registration  bureau  known  as  the 
"confidential  exchange."  By  registering  a  case  in  the  exchange, 
it  is  possible  for  the  social  worker  to  learn  whether  or  not  any 
other  social  workers  have  been  dealing  with  the  child  or  the 
family  and  what  their  experience  has  been.  The  case  of  the 

M—       -  family  illustrates  this  point.     Henry  M —  ,  who 

was  thirteen  years  old,  was  brought  into  the  central  office  of  the 
Juvenile  Protective  Association  one  Friday  afternoon  while 
school  was  in  session  with  $9 . 83  in  his  pockets,  which  he  said  he 
had  begged  in  the  Loop  district  during  the  day.  He  had  been 
"reported"  to  the  association  by  a  business  man  who  had 
enough  social  intelligence  to  know  that  it  was  not  a  kindness 
to  the  child  to  give  him  money  and  to  encourage  him  to  go  on 
begging.  An  officer  of  the  association  who  went  to  the  school 
which  Henry  was  supposed  to  attend  found  that  he  had  been 
absent  fifty-five  half-days  since  September  and  that  thirty-four 
of  these  absences  were  on  Friday.  He  had  been  absent  all  day 
Friday  thirteen  times,  and  a  half-day  on  Friday  eight  times. 
Later  evidence  showed  that  these  regular  Friday  absences  were 
for  the  purpose  of  begging.  The  attention  of  the  truant  officer 
had  twice  been  called  to  Henry's  absences.  Each  time  she  had 


234     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

reported  back  to  the  school  that  the  family  was  poor  and  the 
boy  had  stayed  out  "to  get  bread"  for  the  family.  Now  the 
Juvenile  Protective  Association  officer  discovered  by  registering 
with  the  confidential  exchange  that  the  M —  -  family  had 
been  known  to  the  United  Charities  for  a  period  of  eight  years 
and  that  during  this  time  strenuous  efforts  had  been  made  to 

compel  Mr.  M to  support  his  family.    Within  the  last 

two  years  the  United  Charities  had  received  thirteen  reports 
of  the  child's  begging,  but  the  family  had  contrived  by  giving 
false  addresses  to  elude  the  Charities  visitors.  The  Juvenile 
Protective  Association  investigator  called  at  the  home  and 
found  ample  confirmation  of  the  facts  in  the  United  Charities 
record.  The  family  were  living  in  a  good  home,  which  was 
owned  by  Mr.  M —  — 's  father,  who  also  owned  another  house 
on  the  same  lot.  Mr.  M —  —  was  at  home  unemployed,  and 
the  mother  was  at  first  plausible  and  then  defiant.  She 
admitted,  when  she  found  the  officer  in  possession  of  the  facts, 
that  she  sent  the  boy  out  begging  every  Friday,  but  said  that 
she  thought  he  was  doing  very  well  if  he  went  to  school  four 
days  a  week.  Had  the  truant  officer  consulted  the  record  in 
the  United  Charities  office,  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  little  boy 
would  not  have  been  excused  for  his  begging  expeditions.  One 
great  advantage  which  the  private  social  agencies  of  Chicago 
have  over  the  truant  officers  at  the  present  time  is  that  they 
register  and  " clear"  in  the  confidential  exchange  the  families 
with  which  they  are  asked  to  deal. 

Attention  may  be  called  here  to  the  teacher's  acquiescence 
in  Henry's  Friday  half-holiday  when  she  was  informed  that  it 
was  a  case  of  necessity.  Reference  has  been  made  before  to  the 
fact  that  teachers  assume  too  much  latitude  in  determining 
what  shall  be  accepted  as  a  sufficient  cause  or  a  good  excuse  for 
absence.  The  real  point  of  difficulty  is  that  too  often  the 
teachers  do  not  know  anything  about  the  organized  social 
agencies  of  the  community  that  might  be  asked  to  assist  in  cases 


THE  VISITING  TEACHER '  235 

of  seemingly  necessary  absences.  Too  often,  also,  it  appears 
that  truant  officers  are  likewise  ignorant  of  the  community's 
social  resources.  Another  illustration  of  this  may  be  found  in 
the  case  of  Joe  L —  —  which  is  also  cited  in  the  Juvenile  Pro- 
tective Association's  report.  On  November  17,  1915,  Joe's 
teacher  sent  in  a  report  to  the  association  complaining  that  Joe 
was  habitually  tardy  or  absent  from  school  in  the  morning 
because  he  was  out  selling  newspapers.  Joe's  mother  when 
interviewed  claimed  that  the  school  principal  had  given  Joe 
permission  to  come  late  or  to  remain  away  from  the  morning 
session.  Joe  had  bought  during  the  summer  the  right  to  sell 
papers  at  a  certain  corner  from  4:30  to  10:30  in  the  morning 
and  was  loath  to  part  with  this  valuable  concession.  The 
principal  when  interviewed  confirmed  this  statement,  but  said 
that  she  had  granted  the  permission  for  September  only  and 
would  notify  the  parents  that  it  was  now  revoked.  Her  excuse 
for  ignoring  the  compulsory  education  law  was  that  she  thought 
the  boy  should  be  given  time  to  sell  his  corner;  but  since  he  had 
had  nearly  three  months  to  do  this,  she  decided  that  the  quick- 
est way  to  get  it  sold  would  be  to  require  his  attendance  at 
school.  A  similar  case  was  that  of  a  principal  who  sent  to  the 
representative  of  another  social  agency  a  small  boy  with  a  letter 

containing  the  following  statement:  "George  P 's  mother 

is  well  known  to  me.    Her  children  are  regular  attendants  at 

this  school.     I  know  Mrs.  P to  be  in  sore  need  of  George's 

help  and  I  recommend  he  be  allowed  to  go  to  work  on  condition 
that  he  regularly  attend  night  school.  George  ....  is  the 
oldest  of  six  children.  He  is  just  ready  for  eighth  grade." 
The  letter,  which  was  written  in  November,  also  stated  that 
George  would  not  be  fourteen  until  the  following  May.  Under 
the  law  the  principal  had  no  discretion  as  to  compelling  the 
child's  school  attendance  for  the  next  six  months.  But  the 
point  to  be  emphasized  here  is  not  merely  the  ignorance  of  or 
the  indifference  to  the  law  on  the  part  of  teachers  and  principals, 


236     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

but  the  fact  that  a  competent  social  worker  would  have  found 
some  method  of  assisting  the  mother  that  did  not  involve 
a  sacrifice  of  the  child's  schooling  and  a  violation  of  the  law. 
It  is  believed  that  in  all  cases  of  non-attendance  alleged  to  be 
due  to  such  causes  as  extreme  poverty,  need  for  child's  earnings 
or  assistance  in  helping  to  care  for  younger  children,  sickness  of 
mother  or  other  members  of  the  family,  or  lack  of  suitable 
clothing,  an  experienced  social  worker  by  calling  on  the  proper 
relief  agencies,  arranging  for  the  care  of  younger  children  in  a 
day  nursery,  arranging  for  the  boarding  out  of  other  children 
during  illness,  and  by  many  other  devices  can  protect  the  child's 
right  to  the  minimum  of  education  prescribed  by  law. 

Another  illustration  of  the  needless  waste  resulting  from  the 
failure  to  utilize  the  social  resources  that  are  available  may  be 
found  in  the  case  of  a  little  Italian  girl  living  in  the  Hull-House 
neighborhood,  Josie  D —  — ,  whose  mother  died  in  a  hospital, 
leaving  five  children,  the  eldest,  Tony,  a  boy  of  fourteen,  and 
the  youngest,  a  baby  of  two  months.  Josie  was  only  twelve. 
She  was  not  old  enough  to  work  like  Tony,  but  her  father,  who 
was  a  switchman  earning  good  wages,  thought  that  she  was  old 
enough  to  stay  at  home  and  to  take  care  of  the  two  younger 
children.  A  nurse,  who  fortunately  was  a  social  worker  as  well 
as  a  nurse,  explained  that  this  was  impossible,  and  thought  it 
might  be  best  to  put  the  children  in  a  home.  She  was  wise 
enough,  however,  to  ask  advice  from  a  specialized  social  agency, 
and  it  was  arranged  that  the  two  younger  children  were  to  be 
left  by  Josie  at  an  excellent  day  nursery,  which  was  only  a  block 
from  their  home,  and  that  Josie  was  to  go  to  the  nursery  for 
lunch  and  to  play  after  school  until  the  father  came  home.  But 
the  father  evidently  did  not  approve  of  the  plan.  In  March, 
just  a  year  later,  the  teacher  asked  a  United  Charities  worker 
who  happened  to  be  at  the  school  if  she  would  visit  the  home 

of  Josie  D ,  who  had  not  been  to  school  for  many  months. 

The  teacher  said  that  Josie  "was  a  very  good  girl  and  that  she 


THE  VISITING  TEACHER  237 

and  the  truant  officer  had  been  lenient  only  because  they  knew 
that  Josie  was  not  to  blame." 

A  visit  to  the  home  was  made  by  the  social  worker,  who 
found  Josie,  now  aged  thirteen,  at  home,  cooking  and  trying  to 
iron  and  to  look  after  little  Nick  at  the  same  time.  She  had 
just  finished  washing  and  was  weary  enough  to  say  that  she 
would  much  rather  go  to  school,  but  there  was  no  one  at  home 
to  do  the  work.  She  explained  that  the  baby  had  died  during 
the  past  year,  so  there  was  only  little  Nick  to  look  after. 
Another  visit  was  made  when  the  father  was  at  home,  and  it 
was  explained  to  him  that  Josie  must  go  to  school,  that  the  baby 
would  be  much  better  off  in  a  nursery,  and  that  with  a  good 
salary,  such  as  he  was  earning,  he  ought  to  pay  a  woman  to 
wash  and  iron.  But  the  man  had  been  spoiled  by  the  year's 
indulgence.  He  had  had  his  own  way,  had  found  it  easy  to 
persuade  the  school  authorities  that  Josie  ought  to  be  excused 
from  school,  and  could  not  be  convinced  now  that  the  charity 
visitor  was  speaking  any  more  authoritatively  than  the  nurse 
who  had  told  him  a  year  before  that  he  could  not  keep  Josie  at 
home  to  do  the  work.  Further  attempt  to  influence  the  man 
was  given  up,  and  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  superintendent 
of  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education  who  immediately 
took  steps  to  have  the  child  placed  in  school. 

Comment  on  this  case  is  scarcely  necessary.  Josie  had  lost 
a  whole  year  of  schooling  and  the  baby  had  died,  a  double 
catastrophe,  which  could  probably  have  been  avoided  if  the 
school  authorities  had  known  that  co-operation  with  the  social 
agencies  only  a  few  blocks  away  might  have  worked  out  a  plan 
that  would  have  released  Josie  from  the  burdens  she  was  trying 
to  carry. 

There  are  many  other  cases  like  that  of  Josie,  and  for  a  large 
number  of  these  there  is  now  no  social  agency  that  can  render 
the  service  needed.  A  school  visitor  who  had  already  had  the 
training  and  experience  of  a  social  worker  could,  if  attached  to 


238     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

each  school,  do  a  great  deal,  not  only  toward  making  the  children 
more  regular  in  attendance  but  in  seeing  that  they  are  in 
better  condition  for  study  when  they  arrive.  Many  families 
need  persistent  following  up  through  a  long  period  of  years. 
These  families  who  neglect  their  children's  schooling  are  fre- 
quently families  that  are  steadily  going  down  and  need  to  be 
watched  closely.  If  this  is  not  done,  not  only  do  the  children 
in  such  families  go  to  pieces,  but  they  become  centers  of  conta- 
gion through  which  many  other  children  are  harmed. 

The  history  of  the  fruitless  efforts  to  get  the  children  of  an- 
other family  to  school  and  to  keep  them  there  illustrates  further 
the  need  for  the  services  of  school  visitors  who  are  competent 
social  workers.  In  this  case  the  work  of  the  relief  society  should 
have  been  supplemented  by  the  efforts  of  a  representative  of  the 
school  concerned  primarily  with  the  school  attendance  of  the 
children. 

When  a  visitor  from  the  United  Charities  happened  to  be 

visiting  the  X school  to  ask  about  the  school  attendance 

of  the  children  from  a  family  that  was  being  helped  by  the 
society,  the  principal  of  the  school  asked  the  visitor  if  something 
could  not  be  done  about  the  A —  -  family.  He  explained 
that  three  children  of  this  family,  Mary,  aged  twelve,  who  was 
in  the  fifth  grade,  Helen,  aged  eleven,  who  was  in  "high  first," 
and  Johnnie,  aged  seven,  who  was  in  "low  first,"  were  out  of 
school  because  they  had  no  shoes.  The  principal  also  said  that 
he  had  heard  that  the  family  were  a  "bad  lot,"  and,  as  he  had 
heard  that  there  were  three  able-bodied  men  in  the  family,  he 
was  anxious  to  prosecute  them. 

The  children  had  been  out  of  school  all  fall.  The  truant 
officer  had  picked  them  up  and  brought  them  to  school  once. 
Mary's  teacher  said  that  she  was  a  nice  little  girl,  but  her 
attendance  very  poor;  she  had  been  out  of  school  three  months 
before  being  brought  in  by  the  truant  officer.  A  visit  to  the 
family  disclosed  a  miserable  home.  The  father  and  two  sons, 


THE  VISITING  TEACHER  239 

aged  twenty-two  and  twenty,  were  all  idle.  The  three  school 
children  looked  very  frail  and  neglected.  Johnnie,  aged  seven, 
who  had  adenoids,  had  been  examined  by  the  nurse  who  said 
he  could  not  return  to  school  until  his  adenoids  were  removed; 
and  since  this  had  not  been  done  he  had  lost  in  consequence 
nearly  a  year's  schooling.  The  three  children  were  fitted  out 
and  got  back  to  school  on  December  2,  and  persistent  efforts 
were  made  to  drive  the  men  to  work.  The  children  attended 
school  regularly  for  two  weeks  in  December,  probably  as  a 
result  of  the  visit  made  by  the  United  Charities,  and  were 

then  "chiefly  absent  again  until  transferred  to  the  Y 

school." 

In  January  the  family  was  evicted  and  moved  to  another 
district.  In  March  the  family  was  again  located  and  visited, 
and  the  children  were  found  staying  at  home  because  they  were 
"going  to  move,"  as  the  family  had  been  evicted  again.  It  was 
explained  that  the  children  must  transfer  to  the  B —  —  school 
*  and  enrol  at  once.  Three  weeks  later,  the  home  was  again 
visited,  and  the  children  found  at  home,  this  time,  because  they 
"had  moved."  They  promised  to  attend  the  B —  -  school 
at  once.  Five  days  later,  when  another  visit  was  made  to 
the  home,  it  was  found  that  the  two  girls  had  gone  to  school, 
but  the  little  boy,  Johnnie,  was  at  home  alone  with  a  man 
boarder. 

These  cases  show  how  necessary  is  eternal  vigilance  in  the 
cases  where  bad  family  conditions  are  interfering  with  the 
regular  attendance  of  children.  A  school  visitor  would,  it  is 
believed,  be  of  great  service  in  following  up  such  families  and 
in  making  the  persistent  efforts  which  alone  will  prevent 
the  demoralization  and  waste  of  non-attendance.  The  school 
visitor  might  also  help  to  obviate  the  social  waste  that  results 
in  the  cases  in  which  the  teacher  or  the  principal  knows 
that  social  agencies  exist  which  might  be  helpful  in  securing 
proper  treatment  for  children  in  the  school,  but  refuses  because 


240     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

of  misunderstanding,  to  co-operate  with  or  make  any  use  of 
such  agencies. 

In  one  school,  for  example,  the  principal  appealed  to  an 
investigator  for  some  clothing  for  the  M —  —  children  to  wear 
to  school.  The  children  were  out  of  school  on  the  plea  of 
insufficient  clothing.  The  principal  was  very  angry  when  his 
request  was  referred  to  the  United  Charities,  and  was  at  first 
unwilling  to  listen  to  the  facts  that  were  found  in  the  records 

of  that  society.    Mrs.  M —  had  been  refused  a  pension  by 

the  Juvenile  Court  because  she  was  immoral — flagrantly  so. 
The  United  Charities  had  tried  to  improve  conditions  in  the 
home  but  had  finally,  after  the  mother  had  given  birth  to  an 
illegitimate  child,  referred  the  family  to  a  probation  officer. 
The  two  boys  were  committed  to  an  institution  for  dependent 
children,  but  were  never  admitted  because  the  institution  at 
the  time  was  under  quarantine.  The  United  Charities  had 
recently  sent  a  visitor  to  the  home,  who  had  found  that  the 
woman  was  employed  in  a  good  tailoring  shop,  earning  $8  a 
week,  but  frankly  admitted  that  she  was  living  with  a  young 
man  of  her  own  nationality,  who  had  not  yet  been  persuaded 
to  marry  her.  The  United  Charities  found  the  children  warmly 
and  sufficiently  dressed,  and  warned  the  woman  that  they  were 
about  to  ask  the  interference  of  the  court  because  the  home  was 
not  fit  for  the  children.  The  eleven-year-old  girl  was  sufficiently 
provided  with  clothing  to  go  to  school,  but  the  mother  found 
it  convenient  to  keep  her  at  home  to  care  for  the  four-year-old 
illegitimate  child.  Although  an  effort  was  made  to  secure  the 
co-operation  of  the  principal  in  getting  such  action  from  the 
court  as  would  make  the  woman  give  up  her  evil  relations  or 
place  the  older  children  in  some  other  home,  he  persisted  in  his 
belief  that  the  children  were  absent  from  school  on  account  of 
lack  of  proper  clothing,  and  maintained  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
the  society  to  give  clothing  to  the  children  since  their  mother 
excused  their  non-attendance  on  this  ground,  and  made  no 


THE  VISITING  TEACHER  241 

further  inquiries.  He  persisted  also  in  his  refusal  to  discuss 
any  cases  with  representatives  of  the  society,  which  he  said 
"no  doubt  made  a  very  efficient  investigation,"  but  had  never 
to  his  knowledge  during  a  long  period  of  years  given  "actual 
aid  to  needy  children."  When  pressed  to  give  illustrations  of 
such  neglect  he  could  give  none  except  the  case  of  an  equally 
disreputable  home  which  the  society  with  the  co-operation  of 
a  settlement,  the  officers  of  a  children's  society,  a  representative 
of  the  Juvenile  Court,  and  every  social  agency  in  the.community, 
except  the  school,  had  tried  to  make  a  fit  place  for  the  children 
to  live  in.  Here  again,  the  principal,  who  had  never  visited 
the  home,  persisted  in  believing  that  the  only  obstacle  to  regu- 
lar attendance  on  the  part  of  the  children  was  the  unwillingness 
of  the  society  to  pour  in  a  supply  of  shoes  and  clothing,  at  his 
request,  even  when  the  society  knew  that  the  children  were 
already  supplied  with  both. 

Conditions  as  untoward  as  this  exist  in  many  families  which 
are  not  yet  known  to  any  social  agency  and  with  which  the 
school  alone  comes  in  contact.  If,  then,  there  could  be  a  good 
social  worker  attached  to  every  school,  not  only  cases  of  neglect 
but  extreme  poverty,  sickness,  incapacity  on  the  part  of  the 
mother  of  the  family,  and  unfavorable  home  conditions  of  many 
other  kinds  would  be  discovered  at  the  earliest  possible  moment, 
and  if  there  were  in  the  community  agencies  for  dealing  with 
such  cases,  their  aid  could  be  promptly  secured,  or,  if  special 
forms  of  need  could  not  be  met,  the  attention  of  the  community 
could  be  effectively  called  to  that  lack.  In  this  way  a  great 
step  forward  might  be  taken  toward  the  prevention  of  desti- 
tution in  the  next  generation  and  a  great  deal  of  present  suffer- 
ing might  be  relieved. 

Attention  must  also  be  called  to  the  services  of  the  visiting 
teacher  in  the  innumerable  cases  in  which  the  child  is  falling 
behind  or  getting  dissatisfied  with  school.  Sometimes  this  is 
due  to  an  undiscovered  physical  or  nervous  cause  that  might 


242     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

be  counteracted  if  discovered  in  time.  In  connection  with 
these  children  there  is  great  opportunity  for  preventive  work. 
Then,  too,  in  the  case  of  the  children  who  are  sent  to  the  Parental 
School,  much  could  be  done  during  the  period  of  their  commit- 
ment to  render  their  homes  safer  places  for  them  to  return  to. 
In  some  instances  families  might  be  moved  away  from  demoral- 
izing neighborhood  conditions,  or  the  father  could  be  helped  to 
keep  in  work.  In  fact,  all  those  influences  hostile  to  the  child's 
well-being  could  be  studied  and  dealt  with  as  effectively  as  the 
resources  of  the  community  would  allow.  Obviously  great 
waste  occurs  every  time  a  child  is  needlessly  absent  from  school 
or  present  in  such  condition  that  he  cannot  take  full  advantage 
of  the  opportunity  offered.  A  skilled  home  visitor  would  greatly 
reduce  both  these  forms  of  waste.  Moreover,  she  could  dis- 
cover conditions  at  so  early  a  period  that  other  agencies  could 
be  promptly  called  in.  The  services  of  the  physician,  the  nurse, 
the  dispensary,  the  sanitary  bureau,  the  charitable  society; 
the  Juvenile  Court  or  the  friendly  assistance  of  a  neighboring 
settlement;  these  and  other  agencies  could  be  invoked  in  the 
beginning  of  the  family  decline  or  before  the  family  trouble 
became  incurable  or  chronic. 

At  the  present  time  the  teacher  or  principal  may  ask  the 
co-operation  of  the  relief  society  or  an  agency  for  caring  for 
children,  such  as  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association,  but  every 
agency  is  greatly  overworked  and  understaffed,  and  none  is  in 
so  good  a  position  to  keep  track  of  changes  in  the  family, 
whether  they  be  for  the  better  or  for  the  worse,  as  the  school 
would  be  if  it  were  only  adequately  equipped.  In  fact,  at  the 
present  time,  the  family  may  be  visited  by  the  school  nurse, 
the  visiting  nurse,  the  relief  visitor,  and  the  representatives  of, 
perhaps,  other  agencies;  and  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  all  these 
visitors  the  real  source  of  demoralization  may  not  be  discovered 
because  no  one  of  them  may  be  responsible  for  more  than 
temporary  service  to  the  family.  If  the  school  were  enabled 


THE  VISITING  TEACHER  243 

to  discover  hostile  influences,  the  co-operation  of  other  agencies 
in  combating  them  could  be  sought  and  obtained,  and  the  task 
of  each  efficiently  performed,  because  in  the  attendance  of  the 
children  at  school  there  would  be  found  a  fairly  adequate  test 
of  the  conditions  prevailing  in  the  family. 

Among  other  agencies  which  would  greatly  profit  by  the 
development  of  such  co-operation  within  the  school  would  be 
the  medical  inspection  and  school  nursing  service  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Health.  The  city  expends  nearly  $350,000  annually 
on  the  Child  Hygiene  Division  of  the  health  service,  and  the 
development  of  any  machinery  that  will  enable  it  more  com- 
pletely to  fulfil  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  established  can  be 
regarded  only  as  sound  economy.  The  report  of  the  Juvenile 
Protective  Association,  which  has  been  frequently  quoted  in 
this  chapter,  showed  that  in  three  months  28  cases  of  school 
children  had  been  referred  to  the  association  because  of  their 
physical  condition.  Among  these  was  the  case  of  a  child  who 
came  to  school  in  a  verminous  condition.  The  school  principal 
wrote  to  say  that  the  school  nurse  had  been  sent  once  to  the 
home,  but  the  child's  mother  had  used  obscene  language  and 
therefore  the  nurse  could  not  return.  In  another  case  a  child 
was  sent  in  from  a  near-by  school  with  the  request  that  the 
association  arrange  for  a  medical  examination  without  any  state- 
ment as  to  why  the  school  medical  service  had  not  been  utilized, 
and  in  two  other  cases  the  school  principal  complained  that  the 
children  of  a  certain  family  came  to  school  filthy  and  that  a  little 
boy  was  so  offensive  in  his  physical  condition  that  other  children 
did  not  like  to  sit  near  him.  But  in  none  of  these  cases  had 
the  school  nurse  been  asked  to  see  what  could  be  done  for  these 
neglected  children.  A  similar  failure  to  utilize  school  resources 
was  indicated  in  the  cases  of  the  subnormal  children  referred 
to  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association.  Five  of  these  children 
proved  to  be  in  need  of  commitment,  but  in  two  cases  only  had 
they  been  reported  to  the  Department  of  Child-Study.  One  of 


244     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

these  was  a  subnormal  girl  of  school  age  who  for  five  years  had 
not  been  in  school  at  all.  It  is  believed  that  a  social  worker  in 
the  capacity  of  "visiting  teacher"  could  make  such  social  re- 
sources as  the  schools  already  possess  more  effective  in  meeting 
the  needs  of  such  neglected  and  afflicted  children. 

It  is  not  suggested  that  the  school  visitors  or  visiting  teachers 
would  replace  or  supplant  the  officers  of  the  Department  of  Com- 
pulsory Education.  They  would  supplement  the  work  of  that 
department,  and,  to  the  extent  to  which  they  could  do  preven- 
tive work,  they  might  influence  that  department  to  specialize 
in  the  care  of  those  cases  in  which  there  remains  a  consider- 
able disciplinary  element.  To  the  extent  to  which  such 
specialization  took  place,  the  efficiency  of  the  department  would 
doubtless  be  raised.  In  this  connection  the  following  state- 
ment from  the  final  report  of  the  New  York  Committee  on 
School  Inquiry  may  be  quoted: 

The  investigation  of  causes  of  irregularity  of  attendance,  delin- 
quency, and  unsatisfactory  progress  of  school  children;  preventive 
treatment  for  minimizing  and  removing  these  causes;  and  disci- 
plinary treatment  for  the  application  and  enforcement  of  remedial 
measures  are  integral  and  indispensable  elements  of  educational 

administration The    (compulsory    attendance)    service,    at 

present  limits  itself  unduly  to  the  performance  of  police  functions, 
aiming  chiefly  at  the  immediate  explanation  and  checking  of  truancy 
and  irregularity,  rather  than  the  prevention  of  truancy  and  irregu- 
larity, by  attempting  to  discover  and  control  their  causes.  Such 
control  of  truancy  by  police  methods  alone  is  quite  inadequate  and 
often  inappropriate.  The  harmful  effect  of  irregularity  of  attendance 
on  the  education  of  children  was  pointed  out  above  in  the  discussions 
of  promotions  and  non-promotions.  The  evil  effect  of  irregularity 
and  truancy  on  character  and  conduct  during  and  outside  of  school 
hours  is  obvious.  The  prevention  of  irregularity  and  truancy  by 
striking  at  their  causes  is  therefore  even  more  important  than  the 
attempt  to  cure  them. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  TRUANCY  PROBLEM  IN  THE  CHICAGO  SUBURBS  AND  IN 
OTHER  PARTS  OF  ILLINOIS1 

The  services  of  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education 
and  the  benefits  of  the  Parental  School  are  enjoyed  only  by  the 
children  of  Chicago.  Outside  of  Chicago,  but  within  Cook 
County  and  therefore  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Juvenile 
Court,  there  are  175  elementary-school  districts.  These  dis- 
tricts may  be  divided  into  two  groups.  There  are,  first,  those 
districts  that  are  really  rural  in  character;  for  example,  101 
districts  have  the  typical  one-room,  one-teacher  rural  school; 
28  have  2  teachers  each;  9  have  3,  and  5  have  4  teachers  each. 
Then,  there  are  those  districts  that  are  suburban  rather  than 
rural;  there  are  32  of  these.  They  employ  all  the  way  from 
5  to  117  teachers  and  maintain  modern  graded  schools. 

In  all  these  districts,  just  as  in  the  cities,  the  education 
authorities  are  required  by  statute  to  appoint  someone  to  act 
as  a  truant  officer  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  return  children  to 
school  and  to  prosecute  recalcitrant  parents.2  These  districts 
are  not,  however,  required  to  establish  parental  or  truant 
schools,  and  in  no  one  of  the  suburban  towns  is  there  a  parental 
school.  The  children  in  these  districts  are  in  fact  in  the  same 
plight,  so  far  as  institutional  provision  is  concerned,  in  which 
Chicago  boys  were  before  the  establishment  of  the  Chicago 
Parental  School  in  1902  and  in  which  the  girls  and  all  fourteen- 
to  sixteen-year-old  Chicago  children  are  now;  and  therefore 
no  children  from  these  districts  are  brought  as  truants  before 
the  Juvenile  Court  under  the  compulsory  school  law.  Public 

1  For  this  chapter  we  are  largely  indebted  to  Miss  Helen  Campbell, 
research  student,  1912-13. 

'Illinois  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  122,  sec.  275. 

245 


246     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

attention  has  been  called  to  the  needs  of  these  children  more 
than  once.  In  1909,  for  example,  the  chief  probation  officer  of 
the  Juvenile  Court  said  in  his  annual  report: 

I  am  again  forced  to  call  attention  to  the  truant  situation  in  the 
suburban  districts.  Some  time  ago  four  boys  were  brought  into  the 
Juvenile  Court,  unable  to  read  and  write.  Their  respective  ages 
were  eleven,  twelve,  thirteen  and  fifteen  years.  That  School  Board 
like  most  school  boards  of  suburban  towns  of  Cook  County  employs 
no  truant  officers,  and  yet  section  3  of  An  Act  to  Promote  Attendance 
at  School  and  to  Prevent  Truancy  in  effect  July  i,  1907,  plainly 
states:  "The  Board  of  Education  in  cities,  towns,  and  villages  shall 
appoint  [not  may  appoint]  at  the  time  of  appointment  or  election  of 
teachers  each  year  one  or  more  truant  officers  whose  duty  it  shall  be 
to  report  all  violations  of  this  act  to  said  Board  of  Education  and  to 
enter  complaint  against  and  prosecute  all  persons  who  shall  appear  to 
be  guilty  of  such  violations."  From  the  field  of  truants  come  many 
delinquents.  Can  we,  as  citizens,  say  we  have  done  our  full  duty  until 
we  do  what  we  can  under  the  law  to  lessen  the  number  of  truants  ? 

Following  this  report  of  the  need  of  work  among  the  truant 
and  delinquent  children  in  the  outlying  towns,  the  Probation 
Department  of  the  Juvenile  Court  began  to  do  more  work  in 
those  portions  of  the  county  lying  outside  the  Chicago  limits. 
And  in  1912,  the  chief  probation  officer  reported  with  special 
reference  to  one  suburb  as  follows: 

The  efficiency  of  the  Probation  Work  in  Cook  County  outside  of 
Chicago  was  increased  by  the  purchase  of  a  motor  cycle.  One  of  the 
gratifying  pieces  of  work  done  by  the  motor-cycle  officer  was  in 
stopping  truancy  in  West  Hammond  in  the  spring  of  the  year  when  so 
many  of  the  children  were  hi  the  habit  of  playing  truant  to  work  on 
the  farms.  This  was  done  by  a  good  deal  of  visiting  to  the  public 
and  parochial  schools,  to  the  farmers  and  to  the  parents  of  the 
children,  and  when  necessary  by  prosecuting  the  parents  in  the 
West  Hammond  courts.  Although  this  work  was  very  satisfactory, 
the  Chief  Probation  Officer  feels  that  it  should  be  taken  care  of  by 
the  truant  officers  of  the  local  Boards  of  Education  outside  Chicago. 


TRUANCY  IN  THE  SUBURBS         247 

It  was,  unfortunately,  not  practicable  for  us  to  undertake 
a  study  of  the  compulsory  education  situation  in  all  the  out- 
lying parts  of  Cook  County,  although  it  was  believed  such  a 
study  would  be  of  great  interest  and  importance.  But  an 
investigation  of  conditions  in  the  suburban  as  distinct  from  the 
rural  districts  seemed  to  be  possible,  and  was  accordingly 
undertaken. 

With  the  purpose,  then,  of  ascertaining  the  extent  and 
character  of  the  truancy  problem  in  the  communities  near 
Chicago,  an  effort  was  made  to  learn  the  conditions  prevailing 
in  the  thirty-three  suburban  centers  in  Cook  County  in  which 
there  were  graded  schools.  In  those  communities  in  which 
there  was  a  superintendent  of  schools,  he  was  interviewed. 
Otherwise  the  information  was  obtained  from  the  principals  of 
the  various  schools.  These  communities,  in  which  there  were 
in  all  95  schools,  may  be  classified  in  four  groups:  (i)  15  were 
purely  residential;  (2)  n  had  manufacturing  and  laboring 
populations,  one  of  these  having  as  many  as  ten  large  industries; 
(3)  4  were  entirely  agricultural;  (4)  3  had  a  mixture  of  laboring 
and  agricultural  residents.  In  one  town  in  the  last  group,  for 
example,  there  were  two  factories  employing  200  men  each, 
and  here  the  recently  arrived  immigrants  worked,  while  the 
majority  of  the  population,  who  were  farmers,  were  of  old 
German  stock.  Only  9  of  these  33  communities  had  a  pre- 
dominantly native  American  population,  so  that  some  of  the 
so-called  "residential  towns"  had  a  large  immigrant  element. 
The  other  communities  had  for  the  most  part  populations  of 
German,  Dutch,  or  Scandinavian  descent,  with  perhaps  a  small 
colony  or  a  few  scattered  families  of  recent  immigrants.  There 
were  only  6  communities  with  a  large  population  of  recent 
immigrants  from  Southeastern  Europe. 

The  number  of  schools  in  any  one  community  varies  from 
one  to  ten.  The  number  of  children  enrolled  in  school  in  the 
different  communities  varies  from  about  one  hundred  to  four 


248     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

thousand.  Nine  of  the  towns,  three  of  which  were  residential 
and  six  of  which  were  manufacturing  suburbs,  have  over  one 
thousand  pupils  enrolled  in  school. 

The  schools  in  the  different  towns  vary  widely  in  character, 
from  those  that  are  saved  from  being  old-fashioned  country 
schools  only  by  being  graded  to  those  that  have  model  equip- 
ment, a  well-trained  staff  of  teachers,  and  various  modifications 
of  the  most  modern  methods  of  teaching.  These  differences 
expressed  themselves  in  the  buildings  as  well  as  in  equipment. 
The  picture  of  one  of  the  schoolhouses,  especially  badly  planned, 
has  been  used  for  years  by  the  county  superintendent  as  a 
horrible  example  showing  what  not  to  build.  This  particular 
schoolhouse  was  put  up  by  a  school  board  composed  of  farmers 
who  knew  nothing  about  proper  school  buildings,  but  its  defects 
have  been  in  some  measure  overcome  since  some  intelligent 
women  have  become  members  of  the  board.  In  spite  of  im- 
provements, however,  the  school  still  remains  a  model  warn- 
ing. In  contrast  to  this  situation,  another  suburb  has  a  group 
of  good  school  buildings  with  excellent  playgrounds  recently 
equipped  and  adapted  for  use  after  school  hours.  The  same 
variation  is  shown  in  the  manual-training  equipment  and 
instruction.  Twenty-one  schools  have  manual  training  in  the 
sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  grades,  with  special  teachers  and 
good  equipment,  and  of  these,  five  have  handwork  in  all  the 
other  grades  as  well;  three  have  handwork  of  some  kind  in  a 
few  grades  as,  for  example,  basket-making,  or  leather  work 
before  Christmas  time,  or  a  little  pottery  work;  and  nine  have 
no  manual  training  nor  handwork  of  any  kind.  Several  of 
the  principals  expressed  their  disapproval  of  these  so-called 
"frills";  one,  for  example,  whose  school  had  a  very  superior 
equipment,  said  that  the  more  he  had  the  less  he  liked  it,  and 
that  basket-making,  paper-rolling,  and  even  bookbinding  had 
no  place  in  the  public  schools.  A  superintendent  said  that  he 
did  not  believe  in  putting  such  things  in  just  because  other 


TRUANCY  IN  THE  SUBURBS         249 

schools  were  doing  it.  Nevertheless,  the  majority  of  those 
who  have  no  provision  for  work  of  this  kind  spoke  of  the  lack 
with  regret. 

In  none  of  the  schools  is  there  work  that  is  really  vocational. 
A  few  of  the  principals  think  that  their  domestic  science  and 
cooking  might  well  be  called  vocational,  since  it  does  fit  some 
of  the  pupils  for  wage-earning;  and  two  principals  claimed  that 
their  manual-training  work  was  "pre-vocational,"  because  it 
gave  the  boys  a  good  knowledge  of  the  use  of  tools,  which  helped 
them  to  know  what  they  could  do  best.  One  superintendent 
reported  that  he  was  doing  some  personal  vocational  work  with 
the  boys  who  have  to  work  outside  of  school  hours,  and  with 
those  who  must  leave  school  at  the  minimum  age  in  order  to 
work.  These  boys  are  placed  with  the  business  men  of  the 
town  through  the  superintendent's  efforts  and  are  supervised 
so  far  as  is  possible. 

With  this  general  view  of  the  communities  in  mind,  the 
truancy  situation  in  the  suburbs  may  be  described  as  follows: 
(i)  in  ten  towns  the  truancy  problem  is  present  and  recognized, 
and  adequate  provision  is  made  for  handling  it;  (2)  in  three 
towns  the  problem  is  present  and  recognized,  but  the  provisions 
for  handling  it  are  inadequate;  (3)  in  fourteen  towns  the  prob- 
lem is  small  or  totally  absent,  but  a  truant  officer  has  been 
appointed  in  compliance  with  the  law;  (4)  in  two  towns  the 
problem  is  present  but  unrecognized  by  the  school  authorities 
who  have  made  no  provision  for  dealing  with  it;  (5)  in  four 
towns  there  is  no  problem — no  truant  officer  is  needed  and  none 
has  been  provided. 

The  general  method  of  dealing  with  truants  in  the  first 
group  of  towns  is  as  follows.  The  superintendent's  secretary 
collects  from  the  teachers,  either  personally  in  the  main  build- 
ing or  by  telephone  from  the  other  schools,  the  names  of  pupils 
whose  absences  the  teacher  thinks  should  be  investigated. 
These  names  are  telephoned  to  the  truant  officer,  who  does  not 


250     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

start  out  on  his  rounds  until  he  has  a  report  from  each  school. 
In  one  of  the  larger  towns,  where  the  truant  officer  gives  full 
time  to  the  work,  he  visits  the  child's  home  on  the  first  day  of 
absence,  unless  a  note  of  excuse  was  brought  on  the  preceding 
day.  Eight  of  the  towns  in  this  group  have  truant  officers  who 
are  also  probation  officers  of  the  Juvenile  Court,  and  of  the  other 
two,  one  is  a  town  in  which  the  chief  of  police  acts  also  as  a 
truant  officer,  and  in  the  other  the  truant  officer  has  no  other 
employment.  Three  towns  which  are  very  near  to  each 
other  have  the  same  truant  officer  who  is  also  a  probation 
officer.  Two  of  these  towns  are  in  the  same  district  and  have 
had  this  same  officer  for  some  time,  while  the  third  town  has 
recently  begun  to  employ  him  to  handle  the  cases  from  their 
school,  paying  him  a  two-dollar  fee  for  each  case  on  which  he 
makes  a  report.  This  arrangement  has  been  found  to  be  very 
satisfactory,  as  their  problem  is  small  at  present,  and  the  truant 
officer's  familiarity  with  the  whole  district  helps  to  make  his 
work  effective. 

In  two  of  the  three  towns  in  the  next  group  the  school 
janitors  are  the  truant  officers  and  have  proved  most  unsatis- 
factory. In  the  third  town,  with  a  large  immigrant  population, 
the  truant  officer  is  the  chief  of  police,  whose  duties  take  him 
out  of  town  so  frequently  that  a  boy  may  stay  out  of  school 
and  return  before  the  truant  officer  gets  the  case.  In  all  these 
cases  the  superintendent  or  principal  has  practically  assumed 
the  responsibility  of  investigating  the  causes  of  absences  and 
returning  the  child  to  school. 

In  the  third  group  of  towns,  those  in  which  there  is  a  truant 
officer  provided  although  there  is  little  truancy,  the  principal 
or  superintendent  notifies  the  truant  officer  when  his  services 
are  needed,  and  on  the  whole  he  is  kept  sufficiently  busy.  When 
the  daily  attendance  is  taken  in  the  morning,  any  suspicious 
absences  are  reported  to  the  principal,  who  in  turn  reports  to 
the  truant  officer.  If  it  is  a  case  in  which  the  parent  does  not 


TRUANCY  IN  THE  SUBURBS  251 

know  of  the  child's  absence,  the  child  is  usually  returned  by  the 
parent  at  once;  and  if  it  is  the  fault  of  the  parents,  the  law 
is  explained  and  the  principal's  intention  to  enforce  it  is  made 
clear,  which  is  usually  sufficient. 

The  three  groups  of  towns  in  which  there  is  some  provision 
for  handling  truancy  include  twenty-seven  of  the  thirty-three 
suburbs  which  were  visited.  It  is  of  importance,  however,  to 
note  that  only  four  of  the  twenty-seven  truant  officers  employed 
by  these  towns  give  their  full  time  to  the  work,  while  the  other 
twenty-three  officers  have  other  occupations  and  give  only  as 
much  time  as  the  conditions  seem  to  require.  Their  other 
occupations  were  varied:  six  held  the  position  of  chief  of  police 
or  village  marshal;  three  were  railroad  baggage  clerks;  one 
a  post-office  clerk;  two  were  housekeepers;  five  were  janitors; 
one  a  paper-hanger;  one  a  gymnasium  assistant;  one  a  city 
superintendent  of  buildings;  one  a  merchant;  one  a  school 
principal  and  one  a  superintendent.  In  one  town  which  has 
four  schools  the  principal  of  each  is  appointed  truant  officer. 
The  superintendent  explained  that,  if  there  were  really  a  prob- 
lem, this  arrangement  would  be  very  cumbersome,  but  it  is  done 
merely  to  conform  to  statutory  requirements. 

In  the  fourth  group  are  two  towns  in  which  the  services  of 
truant  officers  are  obviously  needed,  but  the  school  authorities 
profess  to  think  conditions  are  satisfactory.  In  one  town,  the 
superintendent  understands  that  there  are  some  ten  or  twelve 
children  who  have  never  been  in  school  and  are  just  running  the 
streets,  "growing  up  like  Topsy,"  as  he  expressed  it.  A  truant 
officer  could,  however,  be  of  no  service  because,  on  account 
of  the  political  situation  no  attempt  to  get  the  children  into 
school  would  succeed.  The  superintendent  explained  that 
the  political  situation  made  things  difficult,  that  the  board 
would  not  back  him  in  getting  these  children  into  school,  and 
that  according  to  the  law  he  could  not  do  it  without  the  board's 
support.  Because  of  what  he  called  "that  curse  of  the  school 


252     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

districts  in  the  country,"  the  required  annual  school  elections 
with  the  resulting  lack  of  permanency  of  the  teachers,  the  super- 
intendent could  not  afford  to  antagonize  the  school  board  who 
elected  him,  and  the  people  who  elect  the  school  board.  The 
people  would  resent  an  attempt  to  force  the  children  into  school, 
and  the  results  might  be  disastrous  to  the  teaching  force  if  he 
asked  to  have  it  done. 

In  the  other  town,  the  principal  considers  truancy  a  real 
menace  and  would  like  to  have  a  truant  officer,  but  feels  that 
it  would  be  unsatisfactory,  as  the  officer  would  undoubtedly 
be  controlled  by  "local  politics."  He  asked  the  investigator 
not  to  mention  to  any  of  the  teachers  why  she  had  come  to  the 
school  as  he  wished  to  give  them  the  impression  that  she  was 
a  county  truant  officer,  "which  might  tone  up  the  school  attend- 
ance a  little."  Here  the  problem  is  one  of  irregularity  of  attend- 
ance because  of  poverty  or  indifference  on  the  part  of  the 
parents,  rather  than  from  wilful  or  incorrigible  conduct  on  the 
part  of  the  children. 

In  the  last  group  of  towns  the  school  principals  thought  that 
truant  officers  would  be  superfluous.  One  of  these  principals 
stated  that  he  understood  that  the  compulsory  education  law 
made  the  appointing  of  a  truant  officer  mandatory,  but  as  there 
never  had  been  the  slightest  need  for  one,  none  had  been 
appointed.  In  another  town,  the  schoolhouse  has  become  very 
small — much  too  small — and  a  new  one  is  being  built.  The 
principal  said  that  his  problem  was  to  find  room  for  those  who 
come,  and  since  "  every  last  child  in  town  comes,"  no  attendance 
officer  seemed  necessary. 

Since  records  of  the  number  of  truant  children  are  kept  in 
seven  towns  only,  it  is  impossible  to  discuss  the  extent  of 
truancy  and  non-attendance  in  the  suburbs.  In  six  of  these 
seven  towns  the  truant  officer  was  also  probation  officer  and  the 
records  were  kept  in  connection  with  the  court  work.  In  the 
seventh  town  the  truant  officer  was  chief  of  police.  In  none 


TRUANCY  IN  THE  SUBURBS         253 

of  these  cases  were  the  records  in  the  hands  of  the  principal  or 
superintendent.  One  school  has  just  started  a  method  of  keep- 
ing the  records  that  will  be  valuable  in  the  future.  In  this  case 
teachers  send  to  the  superintendent  the  names  of  children  whose 
absences  should  be  investigated.  A  card  is  made  out  and  sent 
to  the  truant  officer.  He  investigates,  takes  the  necessary 
action  in  behalf  of  the  child,  fills  out  the  rest  of  the  card,  and 
returns  it  to  the  superintendent  for  filing.  The  principals  of 
two  other  schools  had  no  methods  of  keeping  records  that  would 
show  the  number  of  truancies.  One  of  these  declared  that  they 
kept  no  record  of  truancy,  as  they  tried  to  forget  it.  He  has, 
however,  a  set  of  record  cards  in  his  office,  one  for  each  pupil, 
with  space  for  ten  years'  entries,  and  every  time  the  pupil  is 
sent  to  him  for  any  reason  an  entry  is  made  on  the  card,  and 
this  forms  a  complete  record  of  his  interviews  with  that  child. 
In  another  town  the  causes  of  absences  are  carefully  recorded  by 
the  superintendent  as  a  precaution  against  contagious  diseases. 

But  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  daily  attendance  books  are 
the  only  records  available.  These  books  usually  show  the 
number  of  unexcused  absences,  although  in  most  cases  there  is 
no  record  of  the  result  of  the  officer's  investigation  or  of  whether 
or  not  he  returned  the  child  to  school.  Most  of  the  principals 
replied  in  answer  to  a  question  regarding  the  number  of  cases 
of  truancy  in  the  school  during  a  year  as  follows:  "Not  more 
than  ten";  "About  four";  "Five  would  cover  it";  "Under 
ten";  "Perhaps  twenty";  and  so  on.  Accurate  figures  were 
obtained  for  three  schools  from  truant  officers  who  were  proba- 
tion officers  as  well. 

In  the  suburbs,  as  in  Chicago,  the  problem  of  truancy  has 
several  aspects.  In  these  small  towns  as  well  as  in  the  great 
neighboring  city,  non-attendance  caused  by  children  being  kept 
at  home  to  work  is  a  greater  evil  than  truancy.  In  the  agricul- 
tural towns,  boys  are  kept  at  home  to  work  on  the  farms  in  the 
spring,  and  in  the  manufacturing  towns  girls  and  boys  both  are 


254     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

kept  at  home  to  help  with  the  washing  and  the  care  of  younger 
children.  One  principal  had  just  reported  to  the  truant  officer 
a  case  of  a  twelve-year-old  boy  who  had  been  out  of  school  for 
several  days.  The  principal  had  heard  that  he  had  gone  off 
to  work  for  his  brother  on  a  near-by  farm.  In  another  town,  the 
greatest  trouble  comes  once  a  month  on  "market  day,"  when 
a  great  many  farmers  keep  their  children  out  of  school.  The 
superintendent  was  trying  an  arrangement  that  allows  children 
who  sell  at  the  market  to  be  excused  for  the  latter  half  of  the 
morning  session  on  market  day. 

In  sixteen  towns  the  principals  report  that  constant  vigilance 
is  needed  to  prevent  parents  from  taking  their  children  out  of 
school  before  they  reach  working  age.  In  two  towns,  this 
problem  has  been  solved  by  persuading  the  most  important  of 
the  local  employers  not  to  employ  children  until  they  have 
secured  the  proper  papers.  Two  principals,  however,  report 
cases  where  boys,  because  of  extreme  poverty,  have  been  taken 
out  of  school  a  few  months  before  they  reached  fourteen,  and 
in  both  cases  this  was  sanctioned  by  the  principal,  although  it 
was,  of  course,  in  open  violation  of  the  law. 

In  the  suburbs,  there  are  perhaps  more  of  the  old-fashioned 
cases  of  truancy  than  in  Chicago.  Six  boys  sometimes  decide 
that  it  is  a  good  day  in  the  timber,  or  go  out  swimming  in  June, 
or  go  off  to  a  baseball  game  in  the  next  town,  or,  when  there  is 
an  epidemic  of  measles,  a  few  of  the  unafflicted  ones  stay  out. 
Such  cases  as  these  are  reported  from  the  towns  where  there  is 
either  no  truant  officer  or  one  who  is  seldom  used,  and  the 
matter  is  treated  very  informally.  In  one  case,  for  example, 
the  village  marshal  is  sent  after  truant  boys  and  in  the  case  of 
boys  who  went  to  the  ball  game,  the  superintendent  reported 
that  he  had  settled  the  difficulty  by  giving  them  "a  sound 
thrashing." 

The  problem  of  children  being  kept  out  of  school  for  lack  of 
clothes  is  not  recognized  as  serious.  Fourteen  principals 


TRUANCY  IN  THE  SUBURBS        255 

reported  that  no  cases  have  come  to  their  notice,  and  sixteen 
principals  said  that  the  charitable  organizations  of  the  towns 
are  efficient  enough  to  handle  such  cases  promptly.  In  six 
towns  there  are  charity  organization  societies.  In  one  of  these 
the  principal  is  president  of  the  charity  organization  board,  and 
in  another  the  truant  officer  is  a  member  of  the  board.  In  four 
towns,  the  churches  and  teachers  combine  to  take  care  of  cases 
of  absence  if  due  to  lack  of  clothing;  in  one  town  there  is  a  strong 
parent- teachers'  association  which  provides  for  such  cases;  and 
in  two  others  the  woman's  club  does  the  work  systematically. 
In  one  residential  suburb  a  children's  aid  society  and  a  visiting 
nurse  provide  such  help  as  is  needed,  and  in  another  suburb 
benevolent  families  are  supposed  to  supply  the  needs.  In  still 
another  town  cases  of  poverty  are  referred  to  the  outdoor  relief 
authority.  In  this  town  books  are  supplied  free  when  necessary 
from  the  funds  paid  to  the  township  by  non-resident  pupils. 
In  only  three  towns  did  the  principal  report  that  there  was  no 
way  of  providing  for  cases  of  children  kept  at  home  because  of 
poverty. 

In  the  outlying  towns,  as  in  the  city,  it  has  been  found  that 
one  satisfactory  method  of  getting  children  back  into  school, 
when  they  are  out  unnecessarily,  is  through  prosecution  or  a 
threat  to  prosecute.  Nine  different  school  districts  have  prose- 
cuted parents  under  the  compulsory  education  law.  All  these 
cases  were  heard  in  the  justice's  court  of  the  town,  and  in  all 
cases  the  school  authorities  were  successful.  In  only  one  in- 
stance was  the  fine  more  than  $5  and  costs,  and  in  nearly  all  the 
cases  the  fine  was  suspended  during  the  regular  attendance  of 
the  child.  The  one  exception  to  the  $5  fine  was  one  of  $20,  but 
this,  too,  was  suspended.  In  six  other  towns  the  school  authori- 
ties have  threatened  parents  with  prosecution,  and  found  the 
threat  entirely  sufficient  to  bring  the  unruly  parents  to  terms. 
The  superintendent  of  schools  in  one  town  with  a  large  immi- 
grant population  says  that  he  does  not  prosecute  as  much  as  he 


256     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

might;  that  he  feels  that  the  money  that  would  be  required  for 
fines  is  best  left  in  the  families,  and  that  prosecution  is  a  weapon 
more  effective  if  used  judiciously.  He  prosecutes  when  he 
thinks  the  prosecution  will  have  an  educational  influence  on 
a  certain  group  of  parents,  and  he  finds  it  successful  whenever 
used  as  a  last  resort.  The  school  which  has  been  mentioned 
before  as  having  political  difficulties  in  stopping  truancy  finds 
the  prosecution  of  parents  absolutely  impossible,  since  it  is 
feared  that  the  usually  numerous  relatives  and  friends  of  the 
father  prosecuted  would  form  an  alliance  and  elect  some  of  their 
number  to  the  board,  and  would  either  force  the  superintendent 
out  or  eliminate  some  of  his  best  teachers! 

The  Juvenile  Court  is  resorted  to  largely  by  those  sixteen 
schools  that  have  either  truant  officers  who  are  probation 
officers  as  well,  or  progressive  principals.  Some  of  the  schools 
do  not  seem  to  realize  that  they  can  use  the  court.  In  fact,  one 
principal,  when  the  court  was  mentioned,  remarked  that  his 
district  was  not  within  the  city  limits. 

Most  of  the  officers  who  have  used  the  court  say  that  they 
can  usually  deal  with  truancy  cases  themselves  and  prevent 
the  truant  from  becoming  delinquent,  but  when  it  is  necessary 
to  remove  the  child  from  the  home  because  of  extreme  neglect, 
the  child  is  brought  into  court  as  dependent.  Since  there  is 
no  parental  school  to  which  truant  children  from  the  suburban 
and  rural  districts  can  be  committed,  the  greatest  number  of 
these  truant  children  seem  to  have  been  sent  to  Glenwood,  an 
institution  for  dependent  boys,  organized  under  the  Industrial 
Schools  Act. 

Concerning  the  methods  of  ascertaining  whether  all  children 
of  school  age  are  actually  in  school,  no  one  of  the  principals 
interviewed  was  satisfied  with  the  method  he  had  worked  out. 
Several  arguments  were  offered,  however,  to  show  that  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  the  methods  were  unsatisfactory,  the  probability  of 
there  being  any  children  unenrolled  was  small.  The  principal 


TRUANCY  IN  THE  SUBURBS         257 

of  one  of  the  largest  schools  said  that  he  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  going  to  real  estate  men  for  the  names  of  new  families,  but  he 
always  found  that  the  truant  officer  already  had  the  names  of 
the  children.  Other  principals  offered  such  explanations  as  the 
following:  "Policemen  on  beats  report  all  new  children." 
"Principal  knows  town  so  well  that  he  feels  sure  it  would  be 
impossible  for  a  family  to  escape  his  notice."  Those  towns  that 
have  efficient  truant  officers  depend  on  them  to  search  out  new 
arrivals  of  school  age;  in  three  towns  a  school  census  is  taken 
by  the  principal  himself,  but  the  majority  of  the  towns  feel  that 
they  can  depend  on  the  school  children  reporting  new  arrivals 
or  on  the  fact  that  the  town  is  so  small  that  no  child  could  grow 
to  school  age  and  not  be  known  and  no  new  families  could  come 
in  without  being  noticed. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  however,  after  these  expressions  of 
confidence,  fifteen  of  the  principals  said  that  they  had  found 
cases  of  children  unenrolled  who  ought  to  have  been  in  school. 
The  principals  in  several  of  the  residential  suburbs  explained 
that  this  had  been  due  merely  to  delays  connected  with  the 
adjustment  of  the  family  to  its  new  surroundings.  There  was 
one  case,  however,  of  a  boy  who  was  run  over  by  an  automobile 
in  Chicago,  whose  family  kept  him  out  of  school  six  months 
while  the  case  was  being  settled,  although  he  seemed  well 
enough  to  attend.  This  condition  was  corrected  when  the 
principal  mailed  them  a  private  copy  of  the  school  law.  Another 
case  of  an  unenrolled  child  was  reported  by  the  father,  who  dis- 
approved of  the  mother's  teaching  him  at  home.  One  principal 
complained  of  the  influence  of  politics;  he  said  he  had  heard 
that  there  were  in  the  town  some  ten  or  twelve  children 
who  had  never  been  in  school,  some  Swedish,  some  Polish, 
some  Italian,  and  a  few  Americans;  but  according  to  the 
principal  there  was  nothing  for  him  to  do,  since  he  considers 
it  a  school-board  problem  and  the  school  board  refuses 
to  act. 


258     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Another  principal  states  that  very  often  families  move  out 
from  Chicago  because  they  wish  to  avoid  sending  their  children 
to  school.  The  families  frequently  manage  to  evade  the  teach- 
ers for  two  or  three  months,  and  their  children  are  very  irregular 
in  attendance  after  being  compelled  to  enter  school.  One 
principal  said  that  he  thought  the  presence  of  the  parochial 
school  in  town  made  it  hard  to  tell  whether  all  the  children  were 
really  in  school  or  not.  Parents  sometimes  claim  that  children 
are  in  the  parochial  school  when  in  reality  they  are  for  the  time 
being  not  in  any  school  at  all. 

In  one  town  with  an  excellent  school  system  the  local  Parent 
Teachers'  Association  made  a  complete  census  of  the  mothers  of 
the  district  a  few  years  ago  and  continued  systematically  to  add 
any  new  ones  who  moved  into  town.  This  association  makes 
the  enrolment  of  all  children  in  school  one  of  its  special  aims. 
One  principal  is  trying  to  work  out  a  better  method  of  enforcing 
the  compulsory  law,  and  thinks  that  co-operation  between  the 
town  authorities  and  the  school  on  this  point  is  essential.  In 
one  town  which  has  a  single  large  industry  employing  nearly  all 
the  wage-earners  in  the  population  a  rather  unique  system 
of  control  has  developed.  The  manager  of  the  manufacturing 
plant  is  also  president  of  the  school  board;  and  in  his  dual 
capacity  of  employer  and  school  official,  it  is  claimed  that  he  is 
very  effective  in  keeping  watch  on  the  increase  in  population  and 
vigilantly  enforcing  the  compulsory  education  law. 

Undoubtedly  these  thirty-three  towns,  because  of  their 
proximity  to  Chicago,  have  felt  the  influence  of  city  methods 
and  are  farther  advanced  than  a  corresponding  number  of  towns 
in  central  or  southern  Illinois  would  be  if  a  similar  investigation 
could  be  carried  on  in  these  districts.  Such  a  situation  can  only 
be  regarded  as  extremely  unsatisfactory.  State  control  over  the 
local  authorities,  in  this  matter,  must  undoubtedly  come  about 
before  the  compulsory  education  law  will  really  be  enforced. 
In  the  matter  of  the  enforcement  of  the  factory  acts  and  the 
child-labor  law,  state  inspectors  are  provided  in  order  that 


TRUANCY  IN  THE  SUBURBS  259 

local  influences  shall  not  interfere  with  the  operation  of  the 
law.  Until  some  measure  of  state  control  is  provided,  the  com- 
pulsory education  law  will  remain  a  dead  letter  wherever  the 
local  authorities  do  not  wish  to  provide  for  its  enforcement. 

In  conclusion  it  may  be  said  that  the  enforcement  of  the 
compulsory  education  law  in  the  outlying  towns  in  Cook  County 
seems  to  depend  entirely  upon  the  intelligence,  courage,  and 
energy  of  the  individual  school  officials.  Some  of  these  men 
take  no  interest  in  the  question,  and  others  do  not  know  what 
should  be  done  to  correct  unsatisfactory  conditions  that  are 
known  to  exist. 

The  same  thing  is  of  course  true  of  other  portions  of  the 
state.  It  would  have  been  interesting  to  make  a  study  of 
truancy  and  the  enforcement  of  the  compulsory  education  law 
in  all  school  districts  in  the  state.  And  at  the  beginning  of  our 
investigation  a  letter  was  addressed  to  the  state  superintendent 
asking  for  information  with  regard  to  the  appointment  of  truant 
officers  and  the  enforcement  of  the  attendance  law  throughout 
the  state.  The  following  extract  from  his  courteous  and 
optimistic  reply  is  of  interest: 

Section  275,  school  law  of  1909,  provides  that  the  board  of  edu- 
cation or  the  board  of  school  directors,  as  the  case  may  be,  shall 
appoint  at  the  time  of  the  election  of  teachers,  one  or  more  truant 
officers  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  report  all  violation  of  the  law  and 
to  enter  a  complaint  against  and  prosecute  all  persons  who  shall 
appear  to  be  guilty  of  such  violation.  So  far  as  this  office  is  advised 
truant  officers  are  appointed  in  all  or  nearly  all  of  the  districts  of 
this  state.  They  are  certainly  appointed  in  the  districts  where  their 
services  are  needed.  No  report  is  made  of  districts  making  or  failing 
to  make  such  appointments.  I  can  say,  however,  that  this  law  is 
being  rigidly  enforced  with  splendid  results.  This  office  lends  all 
the  assistance  it  can  in  this  particular  matter. 

As  no  summary  of  the  methods  of  enforcement  in  the  various 
districts  was  to  be  obtained  from  the  office  of  the  state  super- 


26o     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

intendent  and  as  it  was  impracticable  to  make  a  study  of  condi- 
tions either  in  other  cities  or  in  rural  districts,  a  letter  was  sent 
to  the  secretary  of  the  board  of  education  in  each  of  the  prin- 
cipal cities  of  the  state  and  to  the  clerk  of  the  court  in  each 
county,  asking  for  information  concerning  the  methods  of  pre- 
venting truancy  and  non-attendance.  The  letter  inquired 
whether  there  was  a  juvenile  court  in  the  county,  and,  if  so,  to 
what  extent  it  concerned  itself  with  truancy,  whether  truant 
officers  were  appointed,  and  how;  and  to  what  extent  truancy 
was  dealt  with  in  the  schools. 

Replies  were  received  from  each  of  the  eleven  cities  in 
Illinois,  not  including  Chicago,  that  had  in  1910  a  population 
of  over  25,000,  and  from  four  other  cities  having  a  population  of 
over  20,000.  All  these  cities  have  truant  officers,  and  in  three 
of  them  there  was  more  than  one  truant  officer  employed.  In 
some  of  the  cities,  however,  the  officer  gave  only  part  time  to 
this  work.  For  example,  in  one  city  the  functions  of  the  truant 
officer  are  assigned  to  a  city  missionary.  With  very  few  excep- 
tions, the  letters  which  came,  sometimes  from  the  secretary 
of  the  board  of  education,  sometimes  from  the  superintendent, 
and  sometimes  from  the  truant  officer  himself,  stated  that  the 
compulsory  education  law  was  well  enforced  and  that  there 
was  very  little  difficulty  in  handling  truancy  cases.  Such  state- 
ments as  the  following  were  received:  "The  amount  of  truancy 
is  very  smaU,  due  to  the  official  organization  to  prevent  it  and 
the  interest  of  the  children  in  the  work  of  the  school";  "When- 
ever a  suspected  case  occurs,  the  officer  is  informed  at  once  and 
it  usually  takes  but  a  few  minutes  to  find  the  absentee  and  to 
land  him  in  the  school  room";  "By  careful  systematic  work 
children  are  uniformly  kept  in  school";  "It  is  our  purpose  to 
reduce  truancy  to  a  minimum  and  we  are  succeeding  pretty 
well  in  bringing  it  about." 

In  one  of  the  largest  cities  of  the  state,  the  officer  reported 
that  of  2,314  cases  handled,  only  58  proved  to  be  truants.  Her 


TRUANCY  IN  THE  SUBURBS         261 

method  of  procedure  was  as  follows:  With  few  exceptions  the 
cases  of  absentees  were  reached  and  investigated  within  twenty- 
four  hours  of  the  time  they  were  reported.  Sometimes  it  was 
longer  before  action  could  be  taken,  as  the  people  might  not  be 
at  home  when  the  call  was  made.  Where  the  officers  were  sure 
that  the  address  was  correct,  a  note  was  left  for  the  parents. 
This  often  resulted  in  a  speedy  return  of  the  child  to  its  place  in 
school;  or  the  parents  would  come  to  the  office  to  confer  with 
the  officials  concerning  the  case.  It  had  not  been  necessary 
to  impose  any  fines  during  the  year.  An  explanation  of  the 
law  to  the  parents,  "showing  the  harm  they  were  doing  to  the 
school,  and  the  disgrace  they  were  bringing  on  themselves  as 
violators  of  the  law,  and  reasoning  with  them,  would  lead  them 
to  see  the  right  and  to  do  it."  "In  each  instance,"  the  officer 
said,  "the  requirements  of  the  law  have  been  fully  met,  with- 
out hardship  to  any  of  the  parties  concerned,  and  all  have  been 
left  in  a  friendly  attitude  of  co-operation  for  the  future,  which 
was  a  greater  victory  than  a  fine  would  have  gained." 

In  another  city  where  1,567  cases  were  handled,  144  were 
truants.  Here  the  truant  officer,  working  in  co-operation  with 
the  Humane  Society,  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society,  the  factory 
inspector  and  the  Health  Department,  did  much  work  beside 
the  investigation  of  the  absences  of  children. 

In  the  community  in  which  the  truant  officer  is  also  city 
missionary  there  is  a  city  policewoman  who  writes  of  the  situa- 
tion as  follows: 

The  work  of  the  city  missionary  is  under  the  philanthropic 
department  of  the  Woman's  Club,  and  was  for  five  years  combined 
with  that  of  police  matron  in  order  to  establish  that  much  needed 
position.  Now  it  is  combined  with  the  truant  officer  and  the  two 

kinds  of  duties  will  work  very  nicely  together We  haven't 

got  a  Juvenile  Court  in  our  county,  but  our  County  Judge  has  the 
same  privilege  as  a  juvenile  court,  and  we  all  co-operate  in  this  work. 
Taking  up  the  police  work  was  a  big  help  in  this  line.  I  look  after 


262     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

repeaters  and  find  out  the  cause;  if  it  is  defective  eyes,  or  nose,  or 
ear,  or  home  environments,  have  the  children  attended  to  according 
to  their  needs.  If  the  parents  cannot  afford  it,  we  see  that  it  is 
attended  to,  and  here  is  where  the  doctors  have  always  co-operated 
with  us.  While  we  have  always  done  truant  work,  before,  it  was  just 
where  I  ran  across  it  in  my  policewoman  work,  or  as  city  missionary. 

In  these  three  cities,  at  least,  the  truant  officers  are  attempt- 
ing a  work  much  broader  than  the  mere  insistence  that  children 
should  be  at  their  places  in  school,  and  are  making  a  real  effort 
to  get  at  the  causes  of  truancy  and  non-attendance  and  to 
remove  them. 

Five  of  the  cities  reported  that  they  had  juvenile  courts, 
which  could  be  called  upon  to  deal  with  "the  bad  cases  of 
truancy."  In  one  of  the  cities,  the  court  is  said  to  be  "more 
for  the  purpose  of  scaring  the  parents  and  children  than  for 
taking  any  action."  The  truant  officer  in  one  city  turns  over 
cases  which  must  be  brought  into  court,  to  the  probation  officer. 
Truant  children  are  said  to  be  occasionally  sent  by  the  court  to 
the  reform  schools  at  Geneva  or  St.  Charles. 

Since  answers  were  received  from  only  26  of  the  102  counties 
of  Illinois,  it  is  not  possible  to  draw  many  general  conclusions 
as  to  the  methods  of  dealing  with  truancy  in  the  state.  Of  the 
26  counties  reporting,  1 2  have  truant  officers  in  the  towns.  In 
other  cases,  truancy  is  dealt  with  by  the  superintendent  of  the 
school,  or  by  some  of  the  school  authorities,  and  in  one  or  two 
cases  by  the  county  probation  officer.  Four  counties  report 
that  they  have  practically  no  problem  of  truancy;  three  others 
are  dissatisfied  with  the  enforcement  of  the  law,  but  have  found 
no  effective  way  of  bettering  it.  The  report  from  one  of  these 
counties  is  as  follows:  "Compulsory  school  laws  not  enforced 
to  any  great  extent;  superintendent  of  schools  is  trying  to  secure 
a  truant  officer  for  the  schools  of  the  county  seat;  attendance 
is  not  as  regular  as  it  should  be."  One  county  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  state  says  that  the  law  is  not  enforced  to  any  extent, 


TRUANCY  IN  THE  SUBURBS         263 

although  "sometimes  the  janitor  of  the  schoolhouse  gets  after 
truants  and  gives  them  a  scare."  Obviously,  a  state  standard- 
izing agency  would  uncover  many  districts  in  which  the  attend- 
ance at  school  of  children  within  the  ages  prescribed  by  law 
could  be  made  both  more  universal  and  more  regular.1 

The  possibilities  of  increased  efficiency  in  a  centralized 
agency  are  disclosed  in  the  Report  of  the  New  York  State  Edu- 
cation Department  for  the  Year  1912,  in  which  it  is  pointed  out 
that  the  power  to  withhold  the  allowance  of  the  school  fund  from 
districts  in  which  the  child  labor  and  school  attendance  laws 
are  not  enforced  may  be  regarded  as  a  powerful  lever  with 
which  to  raise  the  standard  of  their  enforcement.  For  example, 
in  seventeen  districts,  as  much  as  one-half  the  school  moneys 
apportioned  in  1911  was  withheld,  and  such  pressure  as  that 
cannot  long  be  withstood. 

1  See  also  the  succeeding  chapter,  pp.  270-76,  for  further  information 
regarding  the  enforcement  of  the  compulsory  attendance  outside  of  Chicago. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
THE  SPECIAL  PROBLEM  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT  CHILD 

The  importance  of  the  compulsory  education  law  as  a  means 
of  help  and  protection  to  the  immigrant  family  cannot  be  over- 
estimated. Moreover,  in  a  state  like  Illinois  and  in  a  great  city 
like  Chicago,  in  which  the  vast  majority  of  the  inhabitants  are 
immigrants  or  the  children  of  immigrants,  a  compulsory  edu- 
cation law  is  indispensable  as  a  means  of  safeguarding  the  state. 
The  federal  census  of  1910  showed  that  in  the  population  of 
Chicago  36  different  nationalities  or  races  were  represented  and 
that,  to  use  round  numbers,  out  of  our  2,200,000  inhabitants, 
nearly  800,000  were  foreign  born  and  more  than  900,000  others 
were  the  children  of  foreign-born  parents,  in  contrast  to  the 
445,000  white  Americans  who  are  "native  born  of  native 
parents."1  It  is,  moreover,  important  to  note  that  out  of  the 
1,690,000  who  are  either  foreign  born  or  the  children  of  foreign- 
born  parents  only  about  362,000,  or  about  21  per  cent,  came 
from  English-speaking  countries.  And  yet,  for  the  Russian, 
the  Pole,  the  Hungarian,  the  Bohemian,  the  Bulgarian,  the 
Italian,  or  the  Greek,  a  knowledge  of  English  is  an  indispensable 
requisite  for  his  own  protection  and  his  ultimate  achievement 
in  the  bewildering  and  complex  new  life  into  which  he  has  come. 

It  is  to  the  public  schools,  obviously,  that  we  must  look  for 
aid  in  teaching  these  great  foreign  groups  not  only  the  English 
language  but  the  principles  of  government  upon  which  our 

1  The  exact  census  figures  are  as  follows :  foreign  born,  781,217;  native 
born  (one  or  both  parents  foreign  born),  912,701;  native  born,  native 
parents  (white),  445,139;  total  white  population  2,139,057;  total  popu- 
lation 2,185,283.  Out  of  the  total  1,693,918  who  are  foreign  born  or  the 
children  of  foreign-born  parents,  361,854  are  from  English-speaking  countries. 

264 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT  CHILD      265 

democracy  is  based.  Although  it  is  clear  that  the  public 
schools  must  assist  the  immigrant  adult1  as  well  as  the  immi- 
grant child,  it  is  with  the  needs  of  the  latter  and  the  use  of  the 
compulsory  education  law  as  a  means  of  meeting  these  needs 
that  this  chapter  deals.  It  is  important,  however,  to  note  that 
large  numbers  of  these  non-English-speaking  immigrants  come 
from  countries  where  education  is  neither  free  nor  compulsory. 
The  Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner-General  of  Immi- 
gration for  the  Year  Ended  June  30,  1914,  showed  that  the 
largest  number  of  immigrants  of  any  single  racial  group  admitted 
to  the  United  States  during  1913-14  were  those  from  the  south 
of  Italy,  of  whom  104,000,  or  47  per  cent  of  the  total  number 
fourteen  years  of  age  and  over,  were  unable  to  read  or  write  in 
their  own  language.2 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  American  state,  the  great 
problem  is  to  help  these  people  and  their  children  to  become 
intelligent  and  useful  citizens  in  the  shortest  possible  time; 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  immigrant,  the  great  problem  is 
that  of  understanding  and  appreciating  the  new  world  of  which 
he  has  suddenly  become  a  part  and  the  opportunities  for  which 
he  has  made  such  heavy  sacrifices.  But  oppressed  as  he  is  by 
poverty,  dreading  failure,  and  fearing  deportation,  the  immedi- 
ate solution  of  the  problem  as  he  sees  it  is  to  be  able  to  "get 
a  job  "  and  to  establish  safely  a  new  home.  The  advantages  of 
learning  English  are  not  necessarily  underestimated;  but  bread 
is  felt  to  be  more  important  than  education,  and  the  latter  may 
be  neglected.  Fortunately,  however,  the  immigrant  soon  learns 
that  his  earning  capacity  will  be  increased  and  his  chances  of 
getting  a  "job"  improved  if  he  is  able  to  speak  our  language. 

1  On  the  subject  of  classes  for  adult  immigrants,  see  Report  of  the 
Massachusetts  Commission  on  Immigration,  pp.  1 28  ff . 

'See  Table  VII,  "Sex,  Age,  Literacy,  etc.,"  on  p.  42  of  the  report. 
The  total  number  of  South  Italians  admitted  was  251,612,  and  218,676  of 
these  were  fourteen  years  of  age  and  over. 


266     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

The  Americanization  of  the  immigrant  in  the  best  sense  of 
that  word  devolves  more  largely  upon  the  public  school  perhaps 
than  upon  any  other  single  agency;  it  is  the  public  school,  which 
through  its  Department  of  Compulsory  Education  insists  that 
every  newly  arrived  immigrant  child,  no  matter  how  poor  or 
how  illiterate  the  parents  may  be,  shall  be  given  the  best  that 
America  has  to  give  through  her  system  of  free  schools.  Unfor- 
tunately it  is  not  yet  recognized  that  the  problem  of  getting 
these  children  into  school  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  and 
of  compelling  them  to  attend  with  regularity  is  a  matter  that 
concerns  the  future  welfare  of  the  state.  This  point  has  been 
emphasized  in  our  earlier  study  of  the  Chicago  Juvenile  Court: 

The  foreign-born  residents  of  Chicago  and  of  other  large  cities 
of  the  country  tend  to  segregate  themselves  in  separate  national 
groups  where,  hi  churches  and  schools,  and  in  social,  fraternal,  and 
national  organizations,  the  speech,  the  ideals,  and  to  some  extent 
the  manner  of  life  of  the  mother  country  are  zealously  preserved  and 
guarded.  In  these  large  foreign  colonies,  which  lead  a  more  or  less 
isolated  group  life,  there  is  therefore  a  problem  of  adaptation  both 
difficult  and  complex;  a  problem  which  is  especially  perplexing  in 
connection  with  the  proper  discipline  of  the  American-born  children. 
For  it  should  be  kept  in  mind  that  the  institutions  of  the  city  are 
those  developed  by  American  experience  in  the  working  out  of  Ameri- 
can ideals.  The  city  government  may  rest  for  support  upon  the 
vote  of  the  German,  Irish,  or  Scandinavian  colonies;  but  the  city 
government  is  not  German,  Irish,  or  Scandinavian.  The  children 
and  their  parents  may  speak  Polish,  Hungarian,  Russian  or  Yiddish; 
but  these  same  children  are  to  be  trained  for  a  civic  life  that  has 
grown  out  of  American  experience  and  Anglo-Saxon  tradition, 
and  for  an  industrial  life  based  on  new  world  ideas  of  industrial 
organization.  The  churches  in  the  foreign  neighborhoods,  as  a 
means  of  self-preservation,  may  attempt  to  maintain  the  national 
language  through  the  parochial  schools;  but  the  child  who  leaves  the 
parochial  school  must  be  fitted  into  an  American  community  life  in 
which  the  mastery  of  the  English  tongue  is  not  merely  a  necessary 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT  CHILD      267 

tool  but  the  only  medium  through  which  he  may  share  the  most 
valuable  products  of  American  civilization.  The  community  may 
rob  itself  when  it  fails  to  realize  and  appropriate  the  cultural  con- 
tribution which  may  be  made  by  these  groups  to  the  collective  life 
which  in  the  end  they  must  help  to  work  out;  but  it  robs  the  indi- 
vidual child  and  the  coming  generation  in  a  much  greater  degree 
when  it  fails  to  demand  for  every  member  of  every  foreign  colony  the 
opportunity  of  acquiring  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  the  use  of  the 
English  language  and  an  understanding  of  American  institutions.1 

Unfortunately,  as  yet,  there  exists  no  official  machinery  for 
discovering  and  notifying  newly  arrived  immigrants  of  the 
requirements  of  the  compulsory  education  law.  The  names 
and  the  ages  of  all  the  immigrant  children  arriving  at  our 
various  ports  of  entry  should  be  sent  to  the  school  authorities 
in  the  different  cities,  towns,  or  counties  to  which  they  are 
going.  It  would  then  be  the  first  duty  of  the  truant  officer 
or  other  representative  of  the  local  education  authority  to 
inform  the  parents  of  these  children  that  they  must  be  imme- 
diately enrolled  in  school.3  If  the  commissioner-general  of 
immigration  could  be  persuaded  to  set  this  machinery  in  motion, 
the  results  would  be  valuable  in  many  ways.  The  immigrant 
parents  would  be  impressed  and  the  neighbors  reimpressed  with 
the  public  solicitude  for  education.  Coming,  as  many  of  these 
people  do,  from  countries  where  education  is  denied  to  the  poor, 
they  would  learn  to  understand  their  new  opportunities  and 
obligations.  In  this  way  it  would  be  possible  to  get  all  the 
immigrant  children  enrolled  in  school,  and  to  do  this  promptly 
before  they  had  gone  to  work  and  lost  a  part  of  the  short  time 
available  for  school  attendance. 

1  The  Delinquent  Child  and  the  Home,  p.  55. 

a  This  plan  has  been  recommended  by  several  immigration  commissions. 
See  Report  of  the  New  York  Commission  of  Immigration,  p.  97,  and  Report 
of  the  Massachusetts  Commission  on  Immigration,  p.  124.  The  federal 
Commission  on  Immigration  presented  five  volumes  of  statistics  on  children 
of  immigrants  in  schools  but  made  no  recommendations  on  this  point. 


268     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

At  present,  the  children  of  newly  arrived  immigrants  can, 
of  course,  evade  the  law  with  the  greatest  ease  if  they  wish  to 
do  so;  but  fortunately  the  great  majority  of  immigrants  are 
eager  to  send  their  children  to  school,  often  more  eager  than 
many  American  families.  The  opportunity  to  give  their  chil- 
dren a  chance  at  the  education  that  they  have  missed  has  been 
one  of  the  great  factors  inducing  immigration  to  this  country. 
It  is  clear,  however,  that  with  so  many  thousands  of  immi- 
grants there  must  be  a  very  considerable  number  of  people  who 
value  the  certain  present  earnings  above  the  problematical 
future  welfare  of  their  children. 

It  has,  therefore,  in  the  past  been  largely  a  matter  of  acci- 
dent as  to  how  soon  the  children  in  a  newly  arrived  immigrant 
family  came  under  the  influence  of  the  compulsory  education 
law.  If  the  parents  understood  their  duties  and  their  privileges, 
they  might  with  directions  from  the  neighbors  enrol  their 
children  at  once.  But  if  they  are  ignorant  or  indifferent,  it  may 
be  a  matter  of  weeks  or  months  before  the  children  get  into 
school.  Sometimes  they  are  never  entered  at  all. 

Esther  G ,  for  example,  who  was  born  January  23, 

1901,  came  from  Leeds,  England,  in  1912,  at  the  age  of  twelve 
years.  She  did  not  enter  school  in  Chicago,  but  as  soon  as  she 
was  fourteen  she  got  her  working  certificate  and  applied  at  an 
agency  for  work.  She  had  reached  the  seventh  grade  in  the 
school  that  she  attended  in  England.  And  in  the  two  years 
of  schooling  to  which  she  was  entitled  under  the  law,  she  could 
have  been  prepared  for  better  paying  work  than  she  can  obtain 
without  it.  She  is  the  youngest  of  four  children.  Her  brother, 
twenty-seven  years  old,  is  in  England.  Three  sisters  are 
working,  earning  $8,  $9,  and  $5  a  week,  and  the  father  works 
regularly,  so  that  the  family  could  have  afforded  to  give  her  a 
high-school  course.  And  cases  like  hers  are  less  distressing  than 

that  of  Rebecca  H ,  who  is  now  sixteen  years  of  age  and 

came  to  Chicago  at  the  age  of  twelve  from  Russia.  She  had 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT  CHILD      269 

never  attended  school  and  did  not  enter  the  public  schools  here. 
Before  she  was  fourteen  she  went  to  work  in  an  apron  factory, 
where  she  passed  as  sixteen  years  of  age  and  was  allowed  to 
work  on  a  power  machine.  As  a  result  of  working  two  and 
a  half  years  in  the  factory,  she  developed  tuberculosis  and  was 
sent  to  a  sanitarium.  She  left  the  sanitarium  recently  and  is 
looking  for  "light  work."  She  can  neither  read  nor  write,  and 
can  speak  and  understand  very  little  English.  She  had  never 
had  a  working  certificate. 

Often,  of  course,  these  immigrant  children  are  noticed  on 
the  street  or  in  the  tenement  by  a  vigilant  truant  officer  or  some 
other  alert  social  worker,  or  they  are  reported  to  the  school 
principal  by  some  neighboring  child  who  understands  that  their 
absence  from  school  is  not  in  accord  with  American  right  and 
custom  in  the  matter.  But  in  the  meantime,  the  days  wasted 
are  precious  days.  These  children  more  than  any  other  children 
in  the  country  need  every  day  at  school  that  can  be  given  them, 
because  the  children  of  the  immigrants  are  also  the  children  of 
the  poor ;  they  will  have  to  leave  school  to  go  to  work  probably 
on  the  very  earliest  day  that  the  law  permits  "working  papers" 
to  be  issued  to  them.  Most  of  them  will  never  hear  the  English 
language  spoken  in  their  homes ;  their  fathers  and  their  mothers 
are  many  of  them  illiterate,  and  must  be,  in  the  presence  of 
their  children,  learners  rather  than  teachers.  With  these 
children  it  is  a  matter  of  learning  "now  or  never";  they  will 
come  in  contact  with  few  if  any  educational  influences  outside 
of  the  schoolroom  before  they  go  to  work,  and  after  they  go  to 
work  they  are  likely  to  lose  the  little  they  have  already  learned 
unless  they  have  made  sufficient  progress  to  have  learned  at 
least  the  English  language. 

As  an  experiment  in  attempting  to  make  some  connection 
between  the  records  of  Ellis  Island,  our  largest  single  port  of 
entry  for  arriving  immigrants,  and  the  education  authorities, 
the  Immigrants'  Protective  League,  one  of  Chicago's  private 


270     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

social  agencies,  began  in  1911  to  act  as  a  clearing-house  by 
obtaining  from  the  federal  immigration  authorities  the  names  of 
all  arriving  children  of  compulsory  school  age  who  were  "mani- 
fested"1 to  various  parts  of  the  state  of  Illinois.  The  League 
then  sent  the  names  of  these  same  children  to  the  school  authori- 
ties in  the  various  localities  to  which  the  children  had  gone,  and 
asked  in  return  for  a  report  as  to  whether  or  not  the  children 
had  been  placed  in  school.  The  reports  showed  that  in  a  large 
number  of  cases  the  children  had  not  been  enrolled  until  after 
the  notification  of  the  school  authorities  by  this  private  society. 
In  a  not  inconsiderable  number  of  towns  no  one  could  be 
found,  neither  a  truant  officer,  superintendent  of  schools,  nor 
member  of  the  Board  of  Education,  who  would  send  back  the 
reply  blanks  showing  whether  or  not  the  children  had  been 
placed  in  school.  Table  XXVIII  shows  for  a  period  of  nearly 

TABLE  XXVIII 

RESULT  OF  INQUIRIES  BY  IMMIGRANTS'  PROTECTIVE  LEAGUE  REGARDING 
SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  or  IMMIGRANT  CHILDREN 


1911 
(10  Months) 

IQI2 

1913 

1914-15 

Number  of  towns  to  which 
lists  were  sent  

118 

l6y 

OI 

200 

Number  sending  replies  .  .  . 

97 

69 

62 

139 

Percentage  sending  replies 
Percentage     not     sending 
replies  

82 
18 

41 
CO 

68 
32 

67 
33 

four  years  (from  March,  1911,  to  October,  1915)  the  number 
of  towns  to  which  lists  of  immigrant  children  were  sent  by  the 
Immigrants'  Protective  League  and  the  number  of  towns  which 
did  and  which  did  not  send  replies.  It  will  be  seen  that  in 


1  That  is,  listed  on  the  ships  "manifest"  to  the  immigration  authorities 
as  destined  for  Illinois. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT  CHILD      271 

a  considerable  number  of  towns  varying  from  18  to  59  per  cent 
of  the  whole  number  of  towns  to  which  lists  were  sent,  there  was 
no  representative  of  the  local  school  authority  who  was  suffi- 
ciently interested  to  send  any  reply  concerning  the  school  enrol- 
ment of  these  newly  arrived  immigrant  children.  The  marked 
falling  off  in  the  number  of  towns  in  1913  and  in  1915  was  due  to 
the  drop  in  immigration  during  those  years. 

From  the  replies  sent  from  the  towns  in  which  someone  was 
willing  to  send  back  the  reply  cards,  the  data  presented  in 
Tables  XXIX  and  XXX  have  been  compiled  showing  the  number 
of  children  arriving,  the  number  that  had  been  entered  in  school 
before  the  receipt  of  the  Immigrants'  Protective  League  notices, 
the  number  entered  in  school  as  a  result  of  the  sending  of  these 
notices,  together,  finally,  with  those  who  refused  to  enrol. 

TABLE  XXIX 

SHOWING  NUMBER  OF  IMMIGRANT  CHILDREN  "MANIFESTED"  TO  167 

ILLINOIS  TOWNS  FROM  MARCH  i,  1911,  TO  DECEMBER  31, 

1915,  WITH  REPORTS  FROM  SCHOOL  AUTHORITIES 

CONCERNING  THEIR  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE 

Location  of  Children  Number 

Children  of  compulsory  age 821 

In  school 646 

Not  enrolled  in  school 174 

Incapacitated i 

Children  not  of  compulsory  age 138 

Children  not  located 305 

Total 1,264 

Table  XXIX  shows  that  during  this  period  of  slightly  less 
than  four  years,  821  children  were  found  of  compulsory  school 
age.  Of  these  children  646,  or  79  per  cent,  had  enrolled  them- 
selves in  school;  and  174,  or  21  per  cent,  were  not  enrolled  and 
presumably  were  not  informed  of  their  obligation  to  attend 


272     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

under  the  compulsory  law  until  a  private  organization  had 
notified  the  school  authorities  of  their  existence. 

The  situation  in  Chicago,  where  the  superintendent  of  com- 
pulsory education  has  co-operated  most  cordially  with  the  Immi- 
grants' Protective  League,  is  shown  in  Table  XXX.  The 

TABLE  XXX 

SHOWING  NUMBER  OF  IMMIGRANT  CHILDREN  MANIFESTED  TO 
CHICAGO    FROM    SEPTEMBER   1911   TO   MAY    1915*   WITH 
REPORTS  FROM  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  DEPARTMENT 
CONCERNING  THEIR  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE 

Location  of  Children  Number 

Children  of  compulsory  age  ..............................    3,542 

In  school  ......................................    2,977 

Not  enrolled  in  school  ..........................       532 

Incapacitated  ..................................        33 

Children  not  of  compulsory  age  ...........................       775 

Children  not  located  ....................................    3>383 


Total  .............................................    7,700 

*This  table  does  not  include  the  figures  for  the  year  1013-14  and  therefore  covers  a  period 
of  two  years  and  eight  months  only.  For  the  year  1913-14  no  report  was  made  to  the  Immi- 
grants' Protective  League  by  the  superintendent  of  compulsory  education. 

figures  show  that  during  a  period  of  less  than  three  years,  532 
children  were  found  in  Chicago  who  were  of  compulsory  school 
age  but  who  were  not  enrolled  in  school  until  after  the  notices 
from  the  Immigrants'  Protective  League  were  received.  The 
percentage  of  unenrolled  children  was  smaller  in  Chicago  than 
in  the  country  towns  —  15  per  cent  as  compared  with  21  per  cent 
of  all  the  children  between  seven  and  fourteen  years  of  age. 
This  is  due  no  doubt  to  the  fact  that  many  of  the  smaller  cities 
and  towns  have  made  no  provision  for  enforcing  the  compulsory 
law.  Moreover,  in  Chicago,  where  there  are  so  many  social 
agencies,  some  of  which  are  devoting  themselves  exclusively 
to  work  among  immigrant  groups,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  a 
smaller  proportion  of  children  would  be  able  to  escape  the  knowl- 
edge of  their  duty  of  attending  school.  On  the  other  hand  it 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT  CHILD      273 

should  be  noted  that  the  number  of  children  reported  as  "  not 
located"  is  relatively  very  much  higher  in  Chicago  than  in  the 
other  towns — 3,383  children,  or  44  per  cent  of  the  whole  number 
in  Chicago  compared  with  305  children,  or  24  per  cent  of  the 
whole  number  in  towns  outside. 

In  the  majority  of  cases  the  school  authorities  reported  that 
as  a  result  of  their  visits  the  children  of  compulsory  school  age 
had  been  enrolled  in  school,  but  in  some  cases  the  report  showed 
that  the  child's  parents  or  guardian  refused  to  comply  with  the 
law  and  that  the  school  authorities  for  one  reason  or  another 
would  not  or  could  not  enforce  the  law.  Thus,  in  one  town 
three  Scotch  children,  all  under  fourteen,  were  found  whose 
parents  refused  to  send  them  to  school.  In  this  case  the  super- 
intendent said  he  was  powerless  to  compel  them  to  attend,  as 
the  town  had  no  money  to  enforce  the  compulsory  attendance 
law.  In  another  town  an  English  girl  of  eight  was  kept  from 
school  because  her  mother  was  ill.  The  truant  officer  reported 
that  nothing  could  be  done  about  the  child  because  the  uncle 
who  cared  for  the  mother  and  child  was  a  reputable  man  who 
gave  them  a  good  home  and  would  in  time  be  sure  to  send  the 
child  to  school. 

From  another  town  the  superintendent,  replying  to  an 
inquiry  about  a  family  of  three  children,  wrote  that  they  were 
not  in  school,  and  he  sent  the  following  memorandum  with 
regard  to  them:  "Came  to  school  a  few  days  and  had  to  go 
home  to  rid  themselves  of  vermin.  Parents  absolutely  refused 
to  return  them  to  school.  No  money  to  enforce  compulsory 
laws.  Age  was  misstated  to  emigration  [sic]  bureau.  Deport 
them  unless  they  agree  to  attend  school."  The  assumption 
on  the  part  of  this  superintendent  was  that  the  compulsory  edu- 
cation laws  were  to  be  ignored  by  the  local  authorities  but  could 
be  enforced  by  some  "emigration  bureau"  by  means  of  depor- 
tation, in  spite  of  the  fact  that  deportation  would  not  be  legal 
in  such  a  case. 


274     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

In  several  instances  children  were  not  in  school  because 
there  were  no  "beginners'  classes"  for  them  to  enter.  In  many 
towns  these  classes  are  formed  only  in  the  fall,  and  a  child 
arriving  during  the  winter  or  the  spring  must  wait  until  the  next 
fall  to  enter  school.  Since  these  immigrant  children  have  at 
most  so  few  years  for  school  attendance  and  since  they  have  so 
much  to  learn  if  they  are  to  become  useful  American  citizens, 
some  provision  should  always  be  made  for  enrolling  them  in 
school  at  the  earliest  opportunity.  Moreover,  the  school 
authorities  are  under  obligations  to  provide  instruction  for 
them  if  the  compulsory  law  is  complied  with. 

In  a  number  of  cases  it  was  found  that  the  children  had  been 
sent  illegally  to  work.  The  lists  sent  out  by  the  League  include 
the  names  and  the  addresses  of  all  children  under  sixteen  years 
of  age,  because  in  many  cases  it  appears  upon  investigation 
that  the  children  are  younger  than  the  records  indicate.  The 
age  given  by  the  parents  on  the  Ellis  Island  "manifest"  is 
increased  sometimes  with  the  hope  of  eluding  the  school  author- 
ities and  of  putting  the  child  to  work  illegally. 

In  one  town  a  thirteen-year-old  Greek  boy  was  found  at  work 
instead  of  at  school,  and  investigation  showed  that  he  had  been 
admitted  to  this  country  under  bonds  to  attend  school  for  two 
years.  He  was  at  once  placed  in  school,  and  the  superintendent 
undertook  to  make  bimonthly  reports  as  to  his  attendance  and 
progress  to  the  Bureau  of  Immigration  at  Ellis  Island. 

Another  working  child  was  a  German  girl  of  twelve,  who  was 
kept  at  home  to  help  with  the  housework.  Her  mother  had 
not  intended  to  send  her  to  school  at  all,  because  she  would  that 
year  have  finished  the  common-school  course  in  Germany. 
She  was  quite  willing  to  comply  with  the  law,  however,  when 
she  was  told  that  in  Illinois  the  child  was  required  to  attend 
school  until  her  fourteenth  birthday. 

In  one  town  the  superintendent  of  schools  complained  that 
the  parochial  school  authorities  had  in  several  instances  issued 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT  CHILD      275 

working  certificates  to  children  under  legal  age,  apparently 
without  ascertaining  their  correct  age.  In  one  case  when  the 
matter  was  looked  up  and  the  illegality  of  the  certificate  was 
proved,  the  father  had  obviously  given  false  information. 
When  confronted  with  the  facts,  the  father  destroyed  the 
certificate  and  made  no  further  objection  to  placing  the  boy  in 
school.  In  this  same  town  a  Magyar  boy  of  thirteen  was  found 
working  in  the  cotton  mills.  The  case  was  reported  to  the 
factory  inspector,  who  saw  to  it  that  the  boy  was  sent  to  school. 
In  another  town  a  Lithuanian  boy  of  eleven,  whose  parents 
claimed  that  he  was  sixteen,  obtained  a  working  certificate  from 
a  parochial  school  and  got  a  job  in  a  large  industrial  plant. 
This  case  also  was  reported  to  the  factory  inspector.  In  another 
case,  two  Finnish  children,  a  boy  of  ten  and  a  girl  of  seven, 
were  in  school  but  in  their  leisure  hours  were  tending  bar  in 
their  father's  saloon,  in  violation  of  the  provisions  of  the  child 
labor  law. 

Sometimes,  of  course,  the  family  seemed  not  to  know  of  their 
obligations  to  send  the  child  to  school  and  were  glad  to  comply 
when  notified.  Thus,  a  German  boy  of  eleven,  whose  mother 
was  employed  in  domestic  service,  was  living  with  friends  who 
had  not  thought  of  placing  him  in  school;  but  the  mother  was 
glad  enough  to  send  him  at  once  when  she  learned  through  the 
visit  of  the  truant  officer  that  he  was  expected  to  go. 

The  importance  of  these  visits  to  immigrant  children  is 
further  indicated  by  the  fact  that  a  number  of  cases  were 
reported  of  children  who  were  afraid  to  go  to  school  alone,  but 
went  gladly  when  escorted  by  the  truant  officer. 

Occasionally  the  visit  of  the  investigator  brought  into  school 
a  child  who  was  above  the  compulsory  age.  Thus,  a  Greek  boy 
of  fifteen  was  being  kept  out  of  school  until  he  should  learn 
English,  and  the  truant  officer  was  able  to  persuade  his  friends 
that  he  would  acquire  the  desired  knowledge  much  more  quickly 
by  attending  school. 


276     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  record  that  in  many  cases  the  new  immi- 
grant families  had  discovered  the  educational  resources  of  the 
town  without  assistance  and  were  using  them  to  the  fullest 
possible  extent.  Thus,  one  Croatian  boy  of  fifteen  had  entered 
the  evening  as  well  as  the  day  school;  and  a  family  of  Austrian 
Hebrews  was  found  in  which,  besides  the  three  children  in  the 
day  school,  there  were  four  older  ones  who  worked  in  the  day- 
time and  were  in  regular  attendance  at  night  school. 

The  replies  to  the  notices  sent  show  that  some  of  the  per- 
sons acting  as  truant  officers  had  evidently  enjoyed  none  of  the 
advantages  of  the  compulsory  system  in  their  own  youth,  their 
communications  being  sometimes  quite  illiterate.  Thus  one 
officer  who  was  asked  to  find  out  whether  certain  immigrant 
children  who  were  "manifested"  to  his  town  had  been  enrolled 
in  school  wrote  back,  "There  are  no  foren  children  in  our 
school."  In  another  town  the  clerk  of  the  board,  who  evidently 
acts  as  truant  officer,  wrote  very  illegibly,  "I  Visit  the  School 
once  Every  Five  Weeks,  we  are  Looking  after  all  Foren  Born 
Children  Very  Clost  So  that  they  are  in  School  all  the  time." 
From  another  town,  the  clerk  of  the  board  wrote  with  regard 
to  a  family  of  three  children,  "we  have  a  good  many  Italians 
tending  our  school  they  tend  regular  the  3  you  have  wrote  to  us 
about  are  not  in  our  school." 

The  children  most  in  need  of  protection  are,  of  course,  the 
children  who  are  nearly  fourteen  years  of  age  or  who  are  large 
enough  to  pass  for  fourteen.  To  parents  who  are  not  only  very 
ignorant  but  very  poor  the  temptation  to  sacrifice  the  older 
children  to  the  younger  ones  and  to  the  general  family  security 
is  great.  As  we  have  said  elsewhere  these  children  will,  unless 
their  parents  or  guardians  are  promptly  made  to  understand 
the  compulsory  education  law,  "lose  what  is  perhaps  their 
only  chance  of  schooling  and  what  is  certainly  their  best 
chance  of  initiation  into  American  life  and  their  best  intro- 
duction to  those  new  conditions  with  which  they  must  become 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT  CHILD      277 

familiar."  There  may  be  found  in  the  records  of  the  United 
Charities  of  Chicago  many  cases  where  the  eldest  child  of 
an  immigrant  family  has  been  sacrificed.  For  example,  an 
Italian  family  with  eight  children,  survivors  of  the  Messina 
earthquake,  first  applied  for  help  at  Hull-House  because 
the  eldest  child,  Chiara,  who  was  said  to  be  nearly  sixteen 
years  old,  was  out  of  work  as  a  result  of  the  garment  workers' 
strike,  and  the  father  was  also  out  of  work.  The  family 
wished  to  buy  milk  for  the  baby  on  credit.  The  parents  were 
at  that  time  also  trying  to  get  a  certificate  for  the  thirteen- 
year-old  girl,  Giovanna,  who  was  deaf  and  subnormal,  but  they 
were  compelled  to  return  the  child  to  school.  Several  months 
later  they  tried  again  to  get  working  papers  for  Giovanna,  and 
then  claimed  that  she  was  fourteen  years  old.  The  district 
office  of  the  United  Charities  to  whom  the  family  had  been 
referred  then  wrote  to  Messina  and  received  a  reply,  saying 
that  the  records  were  not  destroyed  by  the  earthquake,  and  it 
was  therefore  possible  to  ascertain  the  correct  dates  of  birth, 
which  were  given,  showing  that  Giovanna  was  only  twelve  years 
old  instead  of  fourteen,  and  that  Chiara  was  not  yet  fourteen, 
although  she  had  been  working  ever  since  the  arrival  of  the 
family  in  Chicago  more  than  two  years  before. 

Chiara's  working  certificate  was  then  confiscated,  and  she 
was  returned  to  school  by  order  of  the  Department  of  Compul- 
sory Education,  but  came  to  Hull-House  in  the  evening,  saying 
that  she  could  not  go  to  school  with  such  small  children;  she 
was  a  "great  big  girl  and  would  be  married  soon."  She  had, 
of  course,  in  these  two  years  lost  her  only  chance  of  learning 
English.  She  will  now  never  learn  to  read.  Her  mother  was 
very  angry  and  said  "Hull-House  ladies  are  dreaming  to  send  so 
old  a  girl  to  school ' '  (thirteen  years,  nine  months) .  The  Messina 
records  were  obtained  too  late  to  do  anything  for  Chiara,  but 
they  have  saved  the  younger  child,  who  has  now  had  her 
tonsils  removed  and  her  deafness  cured  and  has  two  years 


278     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

of  schooling  ahead  of  her.  The  eldest  child  will  be  as 
illiterate  as  her  parents,  and  the  hard  part  of  it  is  that  she 
will  be  illiterate  in  spite  of  our  compulsory  law  and  our  free 
school  system. 

Especially  difficult  are  the  cases  of  immigrant  children  who 
drift  in  from  other  cities  and  who  may  have  lived  in  several 
towns  without  attending  school  in  any  one  of  them.  Unless 
some  system  of  transfers  between  cities  can  be  worked  out,  there 
is  not  much  hope  of  catching  these  more  migratory  families. 
Some  of  them  pass  through  the  hands  of  social  workers,  but 
frequently  not  until  it  is  too  late  to  save  the  children.  For 
example,  a  Polish  woman  applied  for  help  in  a  district  office 
of  the  United  Charities  of  Chicago,  saying  that  her  six  children 
were  freezing  and  her  husband  ill  in  the  hospital  with  incurable 
heart  trouble.  Their  story  was  pitiful:  the  man  had  worked 
in  the  sulphur  mines  at  home  and,  hearing  of  the  high  wages  in 
America,  decided  to  come  to  this  country.  He  came  to  New 
York,  but  was  unsuccessful  in  finding  work  and  then  went  to 
Pennsylvania,  because  he  had  heard  of  work  in  the  brickyards 
there  at  $i  .50  a  day.  He  had  saved  enough  in  two  years  to 
bring  over  his  wife  and  children;  but  after  the  first  year,  work 
became  slack,  so  he  moved  to  another  small  town  in  the  same 
state,  and  then,  still  unsuccessful,  he  went  back  to  New  York, 
where  he  struggled  along  for  sixteen  months,  and  then  came  to 
Chicago,  where  work  was  plentiful  but  for  him  disastrous,  since 
it  had  led  to  overwork  and  a  mortal  illness.  The  oldest 
child,  Hedwig,  who  was  not  quite  twelve,  seemed  so  large 
and  stout  that  neighbors  told  them  to  say  she  was  fourteen 
and  the  child  could  earn  money  for  them.  When  she  was 
told  that  the  little  girl  must  leave  the  candy  factory  where 
she  was  working  and  go  to  school  the  mother  refused  to 
submit,  and  a  long  struggle  followed  to  get  the  child  in  school. 
The  mother  claimed  that  the  child  was  unwilling  to  go  to  school 
and  felt  no  other  excuse  was  needed. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT  CHILD      279 

Another  interesting  case  is  that  of  a  little  Italian  boy, 

Joe  C ,  one  of  five  children.  Application  for  help  was 

made  at  the  office  of  the  United  Charities  when  the  father  was 
out  of  work.  Joe,  who  was  then  the  proud  possessor  of  a  work- 
ing certificate,  could  not  spell  his  name  although  he  could  write 
it.  He  could  neither  write  nor  spell  any  other  word,  however 

simple.  He  had  attended  the  B School  in  Chicago  for 

one  month,  but  he  did  not  know  what  grade  he  had  been  in. 

He  had  been  in  the  town  of  S near  Chicago  for  about  a 

year  and  a  half  and  claimed  that  he  had  attended  school  there. 
He  has  not  been  able  to  "get  a  job"  since  he  left  school.  What 
hope  is  there,  if  he  does,  that  he  will  ever  learn  to  read  and  write  ? 

One  great  difficulty  in  the  way  of  educating  the  non-English- 
speaking  immigrant  child  is  the  foreign  parochial  school.  It 
has  been  pointed  out  that  the  Illinois  law  permits  a  child  to  leave 
school  and  to  go  to  work  without  knowing  how  to  read  or  write 
the  English  language.  The  provision  of  the  old  compulsory 
education  law  of  1889,  which  required  children  to  attend  schools 
in  which  the  instruction  was  in  English  was  stricken  out  at  the 
succeeding  session  of  the  legislature  through  the  influence  of  the 
sectarian  schools;  and  at  the  time,  the  German-Lutheran  schools 
of  Cook  County  seem  to  have  been  most  influential  in  obtain- 
ing the  omission  of  the  words  "in  English." 

Later,  when  the  child  labor  law  made  provision  for  the  grant- 
ing of  working  papers,  it  was  not  possible  to  include  among  the 
educational  requirements  that  the  children  leaving  school  to  go 
to  work  should  be  able  to  speak,  read  and  write  the  English 
language.  The  law  merely  provides  that  the  children  shall  be 
able  to  read  and  write  simple  sentences;  and  the  additional 
words  "in  English,"  which  were  so  much  desired  by  those  inter- 
ested in  the  protection  of  children  were  finally  omitted  from  the 
law.  The  result  has  been  the  establishment,  not  only  in 
Chicago  but  in  other  parts  of  the  state,  of  large  numbers  of 
parochial  schools  in  foreign  neighborhoods  in  which  the  instruc- 


280     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

tion  is  carried  on  in  part,  at  least,  in  some  language  other  than 
English.  It  has  not  been  possible  to  obtain  a  complete  list  of 
these  schools,  but  the  Official  Catholic  Directory  for  1914  shows 
that  there  were  in  that  year  in  Chicago  23  Polish  schools,  22 
German,  8  Bohemian,  5  Lithuanian,  3  French,  3  Italian,  3 
Slovak,  i  Belgian  and  i  Ruthenian  school  maintained  by 
various  Roman  Catholic  parishes.  According  to  the  same 
directory  these  69  schools  had  more  than  33,000  pupils  enrolled 
in  the  year  IQI4-1  There  were  also  the  German-Lutheran 
schools  and  the  schools  maintained  by  the  Greek  Catholics, 
which  are  of  course  quite  separate  from  the  Roman  Catholic 
schools.  The  amount  of  instruction  in  English  that  is  given  in 
these  schools  varies  greatly.  In  some  nearly  all  the  instruction 
is  in  the  English  language  and  in  others  English  seems  to  be 
taught  only  a  few  hours  per  week.8 

Unfortunately,  the  easiest  way  to  deal  with  any  difficulty 
is  to  ignore  it  instead  of  trying  to  understand  the  problem  that 
needs  to  be  solved.  And  all  phases  of  the  parochial  school  ques- 
tion, including  that  of  the  bilingual  schools,  are  usually  dealt 
with  in  this  way.  Since  the  question  is  in  part  a  religious  one, 
there  seems  to  be  a  feeling  that  it  should  never  be  discussed. 

1  This  list,  of  course,  excludes  the  Catholic  parochial  schools  which  are 
not  especially  indicated  in  the  directory  to  be  Polish,  Bohemian,  etc.  The 
directory  shows  that  there  are,  including  the  English-speaking  schools, 
a  total  of  181  Catholic  parochial  schools  in  Chicago  with  95,110  pupils 
enrolled  (Official  Catholic  Directory  for  1914  [New  York:  P.  J.  Kenedy 
&  Sons],  p.  74). 

3  Publicity  has  been  given  in  the  Chicago  papers,  since  the  writing  of 
this  chapter,  to  an  announcement  indicating  that  there  will  be  in  the  future 
more  and  better  English  teaching  in  the  foreign-language-speaking  paro- 
chial schools  in  the  Roman  Catholic  diocese  of  Chicago.  The  problem  of 
the  foreign  school,  however,  is  not  exclusively  a  Roman  Catholic  problem. 
And  again  it  must  be  emphasized  that  this  problem  will  not  be  solved  until 
the  teaching  of  English  is  made  compulsory  by  a  state  law  enforced  by 
state  inspectors,  and  until  a  knowledge  of  English  is  made  a  prerequisite  for 
the  issuing  of  working  papers. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT  CHILD      281 

Yet  surely  the  question  of  the  right  of  the  state  to  insist  that  its 
children  shall  be  so  educated  that  they  shall  be  able  to  under- 
stand the  language  of  their  country  is  an  elementary  one.  It  is 
important  to  note  here  the  results  of  an  investigation  made  in 
Massachusetts  of  the  bilingual  schools  of  that  state.  The  com- 
pulsory education  law  of  Massachusetts,  unlike  that  of  Illinois, 
provides  that  attendance  at  private  schools  will  be  accepted  in 
compliance  with  the  provisions  of  the  compulsory  law  only  when 
the  local  school  committees  shall  have  approved  these  schools, 
and  such  approval  shall  be  given  only  "when  the  instruction  in 
all  the  studies  required  by  law  is  in  the  English  language,  and 
when  they  are  satisfied  that  such  instruction  equals  in  thorough- 
ness and  efficiency  and  in  progress  made  therein,  the  public 
schools  in  the  same  city  or  town."  The  Massachusetts  State 
Commission  on  Immigration,  after  a  careful  investigation  of  the 
bilingual  schools,  reported  that  "for  obvious  reasons,  such  as 
local  influences,  political  expediency  and  in  some  cases  indiffer- 
ence, the  school  committees  make  no  pretense  of  fulfilling  this 
obligation  and,  under  existing  conditions,  there  is  no  prospect 
that  they  ever  will." 

Because  the  subject  of  the  bilingual  school  is  so  little  dis- 
cussed and  so  little  understood  and  because  it  has  not  been 
possible  to  make  an  investigation  of  the  large  number  of  such 
schools  that  exist  in  Chicago,1  and  also  because  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  a  similar  investigation  in  Chicago  would 
disclose  similar  results  here,  it  has  seemed  worth  while  to  quote 
at  some  length  the  account  of  the  bilingual  schools  given  in  the 
report  of  the  Massachusetts  Immigration  Commission: 

1  Unfortunately  the  exact  number  of  such  schools  cannot  be  given. 
It  has  been  shown  that  the  Roman  Catholic  directory  indicates  69  such 
schools,  and  it  seems  probable  that  such  schools  are  not  always  designated 
and  that  the  number  is  even  larger.  Add  to  these  the  number  of  German- 
Lutheran  schools  and  the  Greek  Catholic  schools  and  the  number  becomes 
very  considerable. 


282     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

The  large  number  (over  200)  of  parochial  schools  throughout 
the  State  may  be  divided  into  two  groups;  first,  those  in  which  the 
teaching  is  conducted  in  English  exclusively,  and  second,  those  in 
which  some  of  the  instruction  is  conducted  in  English  and  some  in  a 
foreign  language. 

Schools  of  the  first  group  were  not  investigated  by  the  commis- 
sion. Like  the  public  schools,  many  of  these  enrol  children  of  non- 
English-speaking  parentage,  and  like  the  public  schools  they  are 
affording  those  children  the  associations  and  all  the  advantages  of 
instruction  that  they  are  affording  the  native-born. 

In  the  second  group,  39  schools  in  19  different  towns  and  cities 
in  Massachusetts  were  visited.  The  almost  universal  rule  in  these 
schools  is  to  teach  in  English  for  half  a  day,  and  in  Polish,  Italian, 
Portuguese,  French  or  Greek  for  half  a  day.  These  bilingual  schools, 
of  which  there  are  over  00  in  Massachusetts,  present  a  problem  of 
much  difficulty,  involving  both  religious  and  national  motives  deeply 
rooted  in  the  heart  and  mind  of  the  foreign-speaking  peoples,  and 
entitled  to  sympathetic  recognition  by  the  entire  community.  The 
problem,  moreover,  includes  highly  important  social,  financial  and 
economic  considerations.  In  some  instances  it  is  being  successfully 
solved. 

Teachers  in  all  these  schools  have  to  deal  with  a  perplexing 
situation,  inasmuch  as  the  pupils  when  they  first  enter  rarely  speak 
English,  and  in  instruction  precedence  is  given  to  subjects  conducted 
in  their  native  tongue.  The  complication  is  increased  by  reason  of 
the  fact  that  many  of  these  teachers  have  but  a  limited  knowledge  of 
the  English  language;  comparatively  few  speak  it  fluently,  some  do 
not  speak  it  at  all.  Such  lay  teachers  as  are  employed  are,  generally 
speaking,  wholly  unqualified.  In  certain  schools  of  one  nationality, 
conducted  wholly  by  lay  teachers,  the  instruction,  discipline  and 
results  are  a  mere  travesty  on  even  rudimentary  educational  methods. 
Under  such  conditions  proper  progress  in  English  or  any  other  study 
is  impossible. 

The  atmosphere  of  any  one  of  these  schools  depends  mainly  upon 
the  attitude  of  the  pastor  of  the  church  with  which  it  is  connected. 
While  some  of  these  pastors  are  thoroughly  imbued  with  American 
ideals,  the  majority  are  of  foreign  birth,  education  and  training,  so 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT  CHILD      283 

intensely  devoted  to  their  native  land  that  their  patriotism  permits 
no  divided  allegiance;  hence  any  special  emphasis  upon  the  study  of 
English  or  American  traditions  and  ideals,  which  often  the  Superior 
in  immediate  charge  would  gladly  undertake,  does  not  enlist  their 
sympathy  or  meet  with  their  approval. 

Furthermore,  while  we  have  the  greatest  respect  for  the  exalted 
character,  disinterested  service  and  untiring  zeal  of  the  teachers,  we 
must  regretfully  declare  that  in  very  many  cases  they  are  not  equipped 
by  previous  training  (often  excellent  in  their  own  language  and 
literature),  by  familiarity  with  American  civic  or  social  ideals,  or 
with  the  stress  of  modern  economic  pressure,  to  impress  sympathetic- 
ally upon  the  understanding  of  their  pupils  the  fundamental  knowl- 
edge which  is  required  alike  in  the  interests  of  the  State  and  of  the 
future  industrial  life  of  the  pupils  themselves.  In  some  instances 
the  atmosphere  is  so  intensely  foreign  that  progress  in  acquiring 
English  is  deprecated  rather  than  encouraged. 

In  drawing  comparisons  between  these  and  other  schools  the 
element  of  time  must  be  considered;  for  as  the  system  of  parochial 
schools,  and  particularly  of  bilingual  schools,  is  comparatively  young, 
it  could  hardly  be  expected  that  these  privately  maintained  schools 
should  be  able  to  make  as  rapid  progress  in  the  character  of  their 
buildings  and  equipment  as  those  schools  maintained  by  the  public 
purse. 

While  a  large  number  of  the  school  buildings  are  of  excellent 
construction  in  every  respect,  and  many  may  be  rated  as  reasonably 
good,  some  were  not  originally  erected  for  school  purposes;  they  are 
distinctly  bad  in  lighting  and  in  ventilation  and  are  positively 
injurious  to  the  physical  well-being  of  the  children. 

The  financial  resources  of  these  schools — mainly  the  voluntary 
offerings  of  poorly  paid  wage  earners — are  utterly  inadequate  to  the 
magnitude  of  the  work  undertaken.  This  financial  handicap  may 
be  regarded  as  the  principal  cause  of  the  inability  of  so  many  of  these 
schools  to  approach  modern  educational  requirements  in  housing, 
in  limiting  the  size  of  classes  to  reasonable  numbers,  in  the  character 
of  textbooks  used,  or  in  the  employment  of  a  sufficient  number  of 
thoroughly  efficient  lay  teachers  to  offset  the  scarcity  of  teachers  of 
the  religious  orders. 


284     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

When  we  consider  the  comparatively  inelastic  character  of  the 
wages  of  the  groups  who  support  these  schools,  and  the  increasing 
cost  of  living,  it  is.  difficult  to  see  how  the  revenues  upon  which  these 
schools  depend  can  be  greatly  enlarged 

That  the  knowledge  of  a  second  language  has  cultural  advantages 
is  beyond  dispute,  and  should  be  encouraged,  for  in  the  history,  tradi- 
tions, literature  and  art  of  the  various  nations  there  is  much  that 
would  enrich  American  life.  But  it  is  not  in  the  pursuit  of  culture 
that  the  overwhelming  majority  of  these  children  are  to  spend  their 
lives.  The  far  more  practical  and  far  more  difficult  problem  of 
bread-winning  is  the  one  to  which — day  in  and  day  out — they  will 
be  forced  to  devote  their  unremitting  attention.  It  is  therefore  of 
vital  importance  to  them,  as  well  as  to  the  State,  that  they  should  be 
fitted  in  the  best  possible  manner  for  this  daily  bread-and-butter 
struggle.  As  they  succeed  or  fail  in  this  they  will  become  an  asset 
or  a  liability  of  the  State,  for,  waiving  other  grave  possibilities,  there 
inevitably  will  be  a  marked  increase  in  dependence  resulting  from  the 
premature  physical  and  mental  breakdown  of  those  who,  from  lack 
of  proper  training,  are  forever  unable  to  escape  from  the  most  exhaust- 
ing and  the  poorest-paid  occupations. 

It  is  therefore  of  importance  to  the  Commonwealth  that  in  the 
secular  instruction  in  these  schools,  the  study  of  English  should  be 
given  first  place,  and  that  all  studies,  except  religion  and  the  native 
language  of  the  children,  should  be  conducted  in  the  English  language. 
The  study  of  the  foreign  language  should  be  made  clearly  subordi- 
nate to  that  of  English.  It  should  be  possible  to  follow  this  plan 
without  serious  interference  with  the  spiritual  or  national  motive 
of  these  schools.1 

The  first  step  that  is  needed  to  insure  that  English  is  ade- 
quately taught  in  the  bilingual  schools  is  to  restore  to  the  com- 
pulsory education  law  of  Illinois  the  words  requiring  that  certain 
specified  parts  of  the  teaching  in  private  school  must  be  "in 
English"  if  work  in  these  schools  is  to  be  accepted  under  the 
compulsory  school  law.  But  such  a  provision  obviously  could 
not  now  be  enforced  by  the  local  authorities  in  Illinois  any  more 

1  Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Committee  on  Immigration,  pp.  148-51. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT  CHILD      285 

than  in  Massachusetts.  The  only  way  to  make  such  a  pro- 
vision effective  would  be  to  place  the  supervision  of  these 
schools  under  a  state  educational  board.  To  quote  a  concluding 
paragraph  from  the  Massachusetts  report: 

The  task  of  gradually  bringing  these  schools  up  to  the  desired 
standard  is  one  calling  for  infinite  wisdom,  tact,  and  patience,  as  well 
as  for  clear  comprehension  and  sympathetic  recognition  of  the  aspi- 
rations of  the  people  who  voluntarily  support  them.  In  such  a  spirit 
the  task  should  be  begun  at  once,  and  plans  in  the  best  interest  of  all 
concerned  should  be  worked  out  harmoniously.  As  the  local  school 
committees  have  not  even  attempted  to  perform  this  task,  the  com- 
mission recommends  that  this  responsibility  be  vested  in  the  State 
Board  of  Education,  as  provided  in  the  bill  that  is  submitted  with 
this  report. 

Another  means  of  insuring  the  adequate  teaching  of  Eng- 
lish in  the  private  schools  is  to  insert  in  the  child  labor  law 
of  Illinois  a  provision  that  no  child  shall  be  given  "working 
papers  until  he  is  able  to  read  and  write  simple  sentences  in 
English."  Until  the  words  "in  English"  are  restored  to  the 
compulsory  education  law  and  added  to  the  working-certificate 
provision  of  the  child  labor  law,  the  essential  first  steps  toward 
the  Americanization  of  the  immigrant  will  not  and  can  not  be 
taken. 

In  the  valuable  Report  on  the  Employment  Certificate  System 
in  Connecticut  recently  issued  by  the  federal  Children's  Bureau, 
attention  is  called  to  the  failure  of  the  Connecticut  law  to 
include  the  ability  to  read  and  write  English  among  the  edu- 
cational requirements  for  the  issuing  of  employment  certificates. 
The  comment  of  the  government  investigators  on  this  feature 
of  the  Connecticut  system  is  as  follows: 

The  theory  upon  which  it  is  attempted  to  justify  this  omission 
is  that  it  must  be  made  easy  for  a  foreign-born  child  to  obtain  a  cer- 
tificate, or  else  he  will  go  to  work  without  any  legal  protection  what- 
ever. However,  the  problem  of  registering  the  foreign-born  child 


286     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

either  in  school  or  in  the  certificate  office  has  to  be  met  in  any  event, 
for  probably  a  majority  of  these  children  have  not  received  sufficient 
education  in  their  own  language  to  pass  the  arithmetic  test.  This 
test  is  said  to  keep  many  foreign-born  children  in  school  until  they 
are  16  years  of  age,  while  American  children,  unless  mentally  defective, 
can  generally  go  to  work  at  14  if  they  wish.  Certainly  an  unen- 
forceable provision  of  law  is  undesirable;  but  it  does  not  seem 
impossible  to  devise  methods  of  enforcing  a  law  which  would  require 
a  knowledge  of  the  language  of  their  adopted  country  by  young 
wage  earners.1 

Finally,  it  must  be  pointed  out  that  our  compulsory  edu- 
cation system  was  devised  to  meet  the  needs  of  American-born 
children  of  American  parents  before  the  problem  of  assimilating 
the  non-English  speaking  immigrants  or  any  other  immigrants 
had  come  into  existence.  If  compulsory  education  laws  were 
needed  for  the  education  of  the  native  American,  they  are 
doubly  needed  for  the  immigrant  who  today  needs  to  learn  not 
only  our  language,  but  also  the  principles  of  our  democracy,  if 
these  principles  are  to  endure  and  "the  promise  of  American 
life"  is  not  to  be  obscured. 

1  Helen  L.  Sumner  and  Ethel  E.  Hanks,  Employment  Certificate  System 
in  Connecticut  (Washington,  1915),  p.  41.  U.S.  Department  of  Labor, 
Children's  Bureau. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  EMPLOYMENT  CERTIFICATE  SYSTEM  AND  THE  SAFE- 
GUARDING OF  THE  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE 
PERIOD 

In  most  American  states  the  upper  age  limit  designated  by 
the  compulsory  school  law  is  the  fourteenth  birthday.1  In 
Illinois,  the  compulsory  period  nominally  extends  to  the  six- 
teenth birthday;  but  since  the  law  provides  that  children 
between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen  may  be  excused  from 
school  provided  they  go  to  work,  the  actual  age  limit  here  as 
in  other  states  is  really  fourteen. 

The  most  important  question  to  be  considered  with  regard 
to  the  upper  age  limit  of  the  compulsory  attendance  period  is 
whether  or  not  proper  safeguards  have  been  devised  to  prevent 
children  from  leaving  before  the  fourteenth  birthday  has  been 
reached.  Since  the  vast  majority  of  children  who  leave  school 

1 A  useful  collection  of  child  labor  laws  has  recently  been  published  by 
the  federal  Children's  Bureau  (see  Child  Labor  Legislation  in  the  United 
States,  by  Sumner  and  Merritt).  According  to  the  digest  of  the  compul- 
sory attendance  laws  given  in  this  volume,  two  states  are  in  mediaeval 
darkness  and  have  as  yet  no  compulsory  education  laws.  These  states  are 
Georgia  and  Mississippi.  The  age  limit  varies  in  the  remaining  states  as 
follows:  the  upper  age  limit  fixed  by  the  law  is  only  twelve  years  in  two 
states^  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  Texas  makes  the  age  limit  fourteen, 
and  Kentucky  makes  it  sixteen;  but  both  provide  "exemptions"  for 
children  between  twelve  and  fourteen,  if  their  labor  seems  necessary,  so 
that  the  age  limit  is  really  twelve  rather  than  sixteen.  In  all  the  remaining 
states,  with  the  exception  of  Ohio,  the  age  limit  is  fourteen.  In  a  consider- 
able number  of  these  states,  the  nominal  age  limit  has  been  raised  beyond 
fourteen  years,  as  in  Illinois,  where  it  is  sixteen  years;  but  since  in  all  these 
states,  children  may  be  exempted  for  various  reasons  from  the  provisions 
of  the  law  and  allowed  to  leave  school  to  go  to  work  at  fourteen,  the  age 

287 


288     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

on  or  near  the  fourteenth  birthday  are  children  who  leave 
school  to  go  to  work,  the  most  essential  safeguard  that  has 
been  devised  to  prevent  an  illegal  withdrawal  from  school  is  to 
provide  that  no  child  may  be  legally  employed  unless  he  has 
been  given  "an  age-and-school  certificate."  In  this  way  it 
should  be  impossible  for  the  child  to  find  employment  without 
the  approval  of  the  school  authorities. 

Under  the  Illinois  law,  the  age-and-school  certificate  must 
be  issued  at  a  place  provided  by  the  school  authorities  and 
either  by  a  person  designated  by  the  superintendent  of  schools 
or  by  the  principal  of  a  parochial  school.  The  law  provides 
further  that  the  certificate  shall  be  granted  only  when  satis- 
factory proof  of  age,  such  as  would  be  afforded  by  a  birth  or 
baptismal  certificate,  a  school  census  or  such  school  records  as 
would  offer  adequate  testimony,  has  been  produced.  In  the 
absence  of  such  recorded  evidence,  it  is  required  that  the  parents 
make  oath  before  the  Juvenile  or  County  Court  that  the  child 
is  fourteen  years  of  age. 

limit  is  really  only  fourteen.  In  Ohio,  girls  must  attend  school  until  they 
reach  the  age  of  sixteen,  and  boys  until  they  are  fifteen.  Under  certain 
conditions  attendance  may  be  required  of  boys  from  fifteen  to  sixteen.  In 
general,  therefore,  it  appears  that  Ohio  is  the  only  state  in  which  the  com- 
pulsory school  age  has  been  raised  beyond  fourteen  without  exemptions, 
and  in  six  states  only,  including  the  two  southern  states  which  have  no  com- 
pulsory laws,  is  the  age  limit  lower  than  fourteen  years.  Unfortunately, 
these  state  laws  vary  in  their  effectiveness  since  very  inadequate  provision 
for  their  enforcement  exists  in  some  of  the  states,  particularly  those  in  the 
South.  In  Florida,  for  example,  the  law  is  optional  with  each  "  special  tax 
school  district,  school  board  district,  or  county,"  which  may  determine  by 
an  election  held  on  petition  of  "one-fourth  of  the  registered  white  votes" 
whether  or  not  the  law  is  to  be  operative  in  that  particular  jurisdiction. 
It  is  gratifying  to  add  that  since  this  volume  went  to  the  printer,  the  exi- 
gencies of  the  presidential  campaign  have  led  to  the  passage  of  the  federal 
Child  Labor  bill,  which,  although  it  cannot  compel  the  states  to  keep  their 
children  in  school,  can  at  any  rate  fairly  effectively  prohibit  their  going  to 
work,  which  is  of  course  the  chief  reason  for  the  refusal  to  make  compulsory 
education  effective. 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  CERTIFICATE  SYSTEM       289 

Unfortunately,  the  provision  in  the  Illinois  law  relating  to 
working  papers  does  not  yet  adequately  safeguard  the  child's 
right  to  be  kept  in  school  until  he  reaches  the  age  of  fourteen. 
Evidence  is  not  lacking  to  show  that  in  Chicago,  at  the  present 
time,  some  children  who  are  not  fourteen  receive  age-and- school 
certificates;  and  others  go  to  work  before  they  are  fourteen 
without  certificates.  In  fact,  no  system  can  be  devised  that  will 
keep  children  in  school  up  to  the  age  of  fourteen  or  any  other 
age,  until  birth  registration  is  really  compulsory  and  every 
child's  age  is  a  matter  of  public  record.  Without  any  official 
record  of  the  child's  age  available,  mistakes  easily  occur.  In 
the  first  place,  the  school  may  have  the  child's  age  registered 
incorrectly.  This  may  occur  in  several  ways.  There  can  be 
no  question  that  many  parents,  who  are  anxious  that  their 
children  should  become  wage-earners  at  the  earliest  possible 
moment,  deliberately  plan  to  evade  the  law  and  to  enter 
their  children  at  school  as  seven  when  they  are  only  five 
or  six.  In  such  cases,  when  the  parents  claim  that  the  child  is 
fourteen  and  ask  for  his  working  papers,  the  school  records 
show  that  the  child  is  entitled  to  go  to  work  and  the  age-and- 
school  certificate  is  issued.  Sometimes  the  mother  acts  more 
innocently  and  enters  the  child  as  five  when  he  is  only  three  or 
four,  in  order  that  he  may  go  to  kindergarten  and  leave  her  free 
to  work;  or  she  enters  him  as  seven  when  he  is  younger  in  order 
that  he  may  attend  the  full  session  instead  of  the  half-day 
session  provided  for  younger  children.  If  the  child  is  not 
"restored"  to  his  proper  age  before  he  is  nominally  fourteen, 
it  is  only  too  easy  for  him  to  claim  his  working  papers.  The 
woman  who  is  most  anxious  to  be  relieved  of  the  care  of  her 
children  is  usually  the  woman  who  is  obliged  to  go  out  to  work 
because  of  the  death,  desertion,  or  delinquency  of  her  husband. 
In  such  cases  the  same  pressure  that  leads  the  mother  to 
register  the  child  as  seven  in  order  to  provide  for  his  care  will 
also  lead  her  to  take  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  evade 


2QO     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

the  law  which  this  early  registration  has  given  her,  and  she  is 
not  likely  to  forget  that  she  will  be  able  to  continue  to  deceive 
the  school  authorities  and  to  get  an  age-and-school  certificate 
for  the  child  when  he  is  only  twelve. 

Working  papers  are  not  issued  exclusively  by  the  school 
authorities.  In  the  section  of  the  law  dealing  with  "proof  of 
age"  it  is  provided  that,  when  evidence  cannot  be  obtained 
from  "the  last  school  census,  the  certificate  of  birth  or  baptism 
of  such  child,  the  register  of  birth  of  such  child  with  a  town  or 
city  clerk,  or  by  the  records  of  the  public  or  parochial  schools, 
....  in  cases  wherein  the  above  proof  is  not  obtainable, 
the  parent  or  guardian  of  the  child  shall  make  oath  before  the 
Juvenile  or  County  Court  as  to  the  age  of  such  child  and  the 
court  may  issue  to  such  child  an  age  certificate  as  sworn  to." 
In  Chicago,  such  certificates  were  issued  for  ten  years  in  the 
County  Court,  and  a  very  considerable  number  of  children  each 
year  obtained  certificates  by  means  of  a  false  affidavit  from  their 
parents.  There  can  be  no  question  regarding  the  purpose  of 
this  provision.  It  was  intended  to  provide  for  the  cases  of 
families  which  had  recently  arrived  in  Chicago  with  children 
fourteen  or  fifteen  years  old  who  could  not  get  certificates  from 
the  Chicago  schools.  Such  children  should,  of  course,  be  made 
to  produce  some  evidence  of  age;  thus  children  from  other  cities 
could  obtain  a  statement  from  the  last  school  attended;  immi- 
grant children  could  show  their  passport,  or,  still  better,  copies 
of  their  birth  records  might  be  obtained.  But  the  bailiff  of  the 
County  Court  was  obviously  too  busy  to  give  the  time  needed 
for  such  details;  other  business  seems  more  pressing,  detailed 
inquiries  regarding  proof  of  age  seem  impossible,  and  the  general 
method  had  been  to  issue  the  certificate  and  to  get  rid  of  the 
weeping  family.  The  situation  was  improved  when  the  Illinois 
Consumers'  League  placed  a  special  investigator  at  the  service 
of  the  court,  but  in  the  necessary  absence  of  the  investigator 
from  court,  the  bailiff  continued  to  issue  certificates  on  affidavits. 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  CERTIFICATE  SYSTEM       291 

Such  was  the  situation  when  this  investigation  was  undertaken. 
Some  months  later,  however,  when  the  Juvenile  Court  was 
moved  from  the  West  Side  to  the  building  in  which  the  County 
Court  sits,  it  was  possible  to  persuade  the  county  judge  that 
rendering  this  service  for  children  fell  more  properly  within  the 
scope  and  the  purpose  of  the  Juvenile  Court  and  that  the 
children  could  easily  be  sent  up  to  that  court.  The  change 
has  been  most  beneficial.  A  skilled  investigator  has  been  in 
charge  of  all  the  applicants  for  such  certificates,  a  thorough 
search  for  some  record  of  the  child's  age  is  made,  and  until  such 
record  can  be  found  the  certificate  is  withheld. 

In  a  large  city  like  Chicago  that  is  fortunate  enough  to  have 
a  good  charity  organization  society  many  cases  of  working 
papers  obtained  for  children  under  fourteen  will  be  discovered 
through  the  relief  records.  When  a  family  first  applies  for 
help  the  dates  of  birth  of  all  the  children  are  carefully  entered 
in  the  "case  record,"  and  it  is  not  easy  at  this  time  to  give 
incorrect  ages.  Moreover,  the  younger  the  children  are,  the 
more  appealing  is  the  distress  of  the  applicants,  and  therefore 
there  is  every  reason  why  the  age  should  not  be  overstated. 
Later,  when  one  of  the  children  goes  to  work  illegally,  a  resource- 
ful charity  visitor  in  the  neighborhood  may,  as  a  result  of  sus- 
picion aroused  by  the  old  record,  succeed  in  finding  the  evidence 
that  will  serve  to  return  the  child  to  school.  Many  examples 
of  work  of  this  kind  may  be  found  in  the  district  offices  of  the 
United  Charities  of  Chicago.  Thus,  in  one  district,  an  Italian 
family  that  applied  for  help  in  1909  said  that  their  youngest 
child  was  ten  years  old  and  gave  a  date  of  birth  which 
properly  related  to  the  dates  given  for  the  older  children  in 
the  family.  Two  years  later,  the  youngest  child,  then  twelve 
years  old  according  to  the  case  record,  came  into  the  office 
with  an  age-and-school  certificate  and  asked  that  someone 
help  her  to  find  work.  She  had  already  been  working  in  a  box 
factory  for  several  weeks,  earning  $2.50  a  week,  but  she  said 


292     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

that  she  did  not  get  on  very  well  and  had  been  told  that  she 
was  too  slow.  The  child  had  attended  four  different  public 
schools  in  Chicago  and  one  parochial  school,  and  an  age-and- 
school  certificate  had  finally  been  issued  from  the  parochial 
school.  She  had  attended  school  very  irregularly,  and  the  date 
of  her  birth  had  been  given  differently  in  each  school.  The 
agent  of  the  charity  organization  society  noted  that  the  record 
showed  that  the  family  had  moved  to  Chicago  from  Omaha, 
where  all  the  children  had  been  born.  A  visit  to  the  mother 
gave  the  name  of  the  church  in  Omaha  where  the  children  had 
been  baptized;  and  a  letter  to  the  secretary  of  a  similar  agency 
in  Omaha,  asking  that  the  church  be  located  and  copies 
of  the  baptismal  record  be  obtained,  brought  back  proof  that 
the  child  was  only  twelve  years  old.  The  factory  inspector  was 
notified,  and  the  age-and-school  certificate  withdrawn,  and  the 
child  was  returned  to  school  under  the  supervision  of  the 
Department  of  Compulsory  Education.  It  is  important  to 
note,  however,  that  this  violation  of  the  compulsory  law  was 
discovered  through  a  private  agency  and  almost  by  accident 
and  that  the  proof  of  age  which  brought  about  the  return  of  the 
child  to  school  was  secured  by  the  same  private  agency.  There 
must,  of  course,  be  many  similar  cases  in  which  the  unfortunate 
child  continues  at  work. 

Sometimes,  in  fact,  the  children  distinguish  between  their 
"  working  age "  and  their  "real  age.' '  And  the  fact  that  evasions 
of  the  law  like  those  described  are  not  exceptional  was  indicated 
by  a  search  through  the  records  of  some  of  the  other  district 
offices  of  the  same  society,  which  brought  to  light  similar  cases 
of  the  issuance  of  age-and-school  certificates  because  the 
child's  age  had  been  incorrectly  given  at  school  and  no  other 
record  was  easily  available.  The  social  worker,  however,  who  is 
accustomed  to  searching  for  such  facts  is  often  more  resourceful 
in  the  face  of  what  seems  to  be  a  blank  wall  than  the  public 
official  accustomed  to  a  less  difficult  routine  existence.  The 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  CERTIFICATE  SYSTEM       293 

public  official,  moreover,  is  handicapped  by  the  fact  that  he 
must  accept  the  information  which  the  law  defines  as  affording 
"evidence"  of  age  and  he  is  given  no  authority  to  determine  by 
tedious  inquiry  from  outside  sources  the  quality  of  the  evidence 
that  is  offered. 

Other  cases  similar  to  the  one  given  might  be  cited.  In  one 
case  in  which  a  family  had  applied  for  help  in  1911,  a  visitor 
calling  at  the  house  a  few  months  later  found  that  the  boy  whose 
age  had  been  given  as  twelve  had  gone  to  work.  It  was  dis- 
covered that  the  age  given  by  the  child  at  school  was  different 
from  the  age  given  by  the  mother  in  the  charity  office,  and  it 
was  also  learned  that  the  family  had  lived  in  Chicago  for  eleven 
years  and  that  the  boy  had  been  born  and  baptized  in  Denver. 
A  letter  to  the  Denver  charity  organization  office  brought  a 
copy  of  the  baptismal  register  showing  that  the  mother  had  given 
the  correct  age  in  the  office  and  the  wrong  age  both  in  the  school 
and  at  the  age-and-school  certificate  bureau.  When  the  mother 
was  seen  again,  she  said  that  she  had  given  his  age  incorrectly 
because  she  was  tired  of  helping  him  and  wanted  him  to  help 
her.  She  explained,  however,  that  she  was  much  "put  out" 
to  find  that  the  boy  did  not  "keep  his  jobs"  after  she  had 
got  a  certificate  for  him,  but  loafed  and  hung  about  cheap 
theaters  instead.  To  avoid  a  return  to  school,  the  boy  then  ran 
away  from  home,  but  was  found  by  the  Department  of  Com- 
pulsory Education  and  placed  in  the  Parental  School. 

There  is  also  the  interesting  case  of  Rosie  L —  — ,  a  little 
Italian  girl  for  whom  a  scholarship  has  now  been  provided  so 
that  she  may  learn  dressmaking  in  the  Hull-House  Trade  School. 
Rosie  was  fourteen  years  old  on  January  15,  1916,  but  she  left 
school  to  go  to  work  in  January,  1914.  When  asked  how  she 
got  her  certificate,  she  said  that  she  had  told  the  sister  in  the 
parochial  school  that  she  was  fourteen  and  had  got  her  school 
certificate  in  this  way.  The  little  girl  is  the  eldest  of  seven 
children,  all  of  whom  are  still  under  school  age,  and  she  felt  that 


294     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

she  ought  to  help  her  mother  because  her  father  was  dead. 
The  work  history  of  this  child,  who  was  just  fourteen  years  of 
age,  was  traced  as  follows.  She  left  school  at  the  age  of  twelve 
and  had  been  "fitter  and  packer"  in  a  large  shipping  department 
for  six  months,  but  she  found  the  work  so  hard  and  she  had  to 
carry  such  heavy  packages  that  she  left  when  she  was  told 
that  she  could  get  lighter  work  in  a  bookbindery.  The  bindery 
job  lasted  only  two  weeks,  however,  and  she  was  then  laid  off 
and  went  back  to  her  first  position  again  and  worked  there  nine 
months  longer.  She  then  was  told,  evidently  by  a  child  work- 
ing in  the  same  place,  that  she  could  earn  more  money  if  she 
claimed  to  be  sixteen.  She  then  got  a  position  in  a  printing 
establishment  and  did  earn  very  good  wages  indeed  by  claiming 
to  be  sixteen  years  old,  although  she  was  not  yet  fourteen. 
When  she  was  laid  off,  however,  she  did  not  find  it  so  easy  to 
get  work  again  and  conditions  at  home  with  no  other  wage- 
earner  in  the  family  were  very  hard  indeed,  so  that  Rosie  finally 
applied  to  a  neighboring  settlement  for  help  in  finding  work, 
an  application  which  has  finally  placed  her  in  the  way  of  learn- 
ing a  trade. 

Sometimes  the  children  are  put  to  work  without  any  papers. 
There  are  always  to  be  found  a  few  employers  who  are  willing 
to  take  the  risk  of  being  discovered  by  the  factory  inspector. 
These  are  usually  the  heads  of  establishments  in  which  there  is 
difficulty  in  getting  "help"  because  of  undesirable  conditions  of 
work,  and  it  is,  of  course,  a  double  misfortune  that  a  child 
should  not  only  lose  the  minimum  of  schooling  that  is  his  due 
but  also  begin  his  working-life  under  the  worst  possible  condi- 
tions. It  is  also  a  serious  matter  that  in  such  cases  the  child 
leaves  school  and  goes  to  work,  conscious  of  the  fact  that  his 
parents  have  sworn  falsely  as  to  his  age  and  that  he  will,  if  he 
succeeds  in  evading  the  law,  have  to  lie  to  the  factory  inspectors 
from  time  to  time  as  he  has  probably  already  lied  to  his  teacher 
and  his  principal. 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  CERTIFICATE  SYSTEM       295 

A  serious  defect  in  the  law  which  makes  it  easier  for  children 
to  work  without  certificates  is  the  fact  that  no  certificate  or 
proof  of  age  is  required  of  the  child  over  sixteen  years  of  age. 
It  is  therefore  possible  for  a  fairly  well-grown  child  who  may 
not  even  be  fourteen  to  claim  to  be  sixteen  and  to  obtain  employ- 
ment in  industries  and  under  conditions  prohibited  by  the 
child  labor  law  for  children  under  sixteen.  In  fact,  the  child 
under  fourteen  may  simply  disappear  from  the  school  records 
and  forfeit  in  this  way  several  months  or  even  years  of  the 
required  period  of  schooling. 

The  only  remedy  for  this  situation  is  an  amendment  to  the 
child  labor  law  requiring  all  minors  to  have  certificates.  Such 
a  provision  is  necessary  for  the  protection  of  employers  as  well 
as  for  the  children.  Careful  employers  may  protect  themselves 
by  looking  at  the  child's  old  certificate  if  it  has  not  been 
destroyed,  but  this  is  the  only  protection.  It  is  true,  of  course, 
that  children  who  are  exceptionally  small  for  their  age  cannot 
claim  to  be  older  than  they  are,  but  children  "  large  for  their 
age"  and  even  those  of  normal  size  are  able  to  defeat  the 
compulsory  law  simply  by  going  to  work  without  working 
papers. 

The  case  of  Mary  G —  —  is  a  typical  one.  Mary  applied 
for  assistance  in  finding  work  at  the  office  of  a  social  agency, 
saying  that  she  had  just  passed  her  sixteenth  birthday, 
that  she  had  worked  five  months  in  one  laundry,  feeding  a 
mangle.  She  had  then  worked  in  another  laundry,  also  feed- 
ing a  mangle.  After  this  she  had  worked  in  several  depart- 
ment stores.  She  was  questioned  with  regard  to  her  work 
on  the  mangle,  which  is  classified  as  one  of  the  "dangerous 
occupations"  prohibited  by  the  child  labor  law  for  children 
under  sixteen,  and  she  said  in  reply  that  she  had  told  the  boss 
that  she  was  sixteen  because  she  had  been  told  that  girls 
under  sixteen  could  not  find  work.  She  admitted  that  she 
had  never  obtained  an  age-and-school  certificate,  but  she 


296     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

claimed  that  she  had  not  left  school  until  the  day  she  was 
fourteen,  had  found  it  easy  to  get  a  job  in  a  laundry,  and 
just  went  to  work  and  worked  until  she  got  sick.  Her  illness 
caused  her  to  leave  her  work  in  the  second  laundry.  When 
the  school  that  she  had  last  attended  was  visited,  the  prin- 
cipal of  the  school  merely  said  that  they  had  "simply  lost 
track  of  her."  The  school  records  showed  that  Mary  was 
born  April  17,  1899;  and  as  she  had  gone  to  work  in  June, 
1911,  she  had  therefore  left  school  when  only  twelve  and  had 
lost  two  whole  years  of  the  schooling  to  which  the  law  entitled 
her.  Her  home  was  visited,  and  the  child  then  admitted 
that  she  had  gone  to  work  when  she  was  only  twelve  against 
her  family's  wishes,  but  since  she  found  it  perfectly  easy  to  get 
a  job  she  saw  no  reason  why  she  should  not  do  so.  The  girl 
had  no  father,  but  an  older  brother  (aged  eighteen)  was  working 
in  the  stockyards  and  an  older  sister  (aged  twenty-three)  was 
a  telephone  operator,  so  that  Mary's  earnings  were  not  urgently 
needed  in  the  family.  The  comparatively  simple  requirement 
that  age-and-school  certificates  should  not  be  destroyed  when 
the  boy  or  girl  becomes  sixteen  or  that  a  new  certificate  be 
issued  and  that  all  minors  be  required  to  present  working 
papers  would  protect  a  very  considerable  number  of  children 
who  are  now  being  deprived  of  the  benefits  of  the  compulsory 
education  law. 

Other  children  are  lost  track  of  in  the  same  way.  Such  was 
the  case  of  Helen  M —  — .  Helen  was  born  January  6,  1900, 
and  left  school  in  1911,  when  she  was  in  the  fourth  grade.  In 
January,  1914,  she  was  granted  a  certificate  by  a  parochial 
school  and  in  October  asked  for  help  in  finding  work.  At  that 
time  she  said  that  she  did  not  know  the  name  of  the  school  she 
had  attended.  She  had  left  school  three  years  before,  had  just 
stayed  at  home  and  helped  her  mother,  and  when  she  was  four- 
teen got  a  certificate  and  began  to  help  support  the  family. 
She  had  worked  in  a  tailor  shop  for  two  weeks  and  earned  $i .  50 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  CERTIFICATE  SYSTEM       297 

a  week  pulling  bastings,  but  she  later  got  a  job  in  a  candy  fac- 
tory during  the  busy  season  for  $4  a  week.  She  was  laid  off 
in  a  month,  but  was  lucky  enough  to  find  work  in  another  candy 
factory  for  a  fortnight,  but  after  that  she  was  unable  to  go  any 
farther.  There  seemed  to  be  "no  more  jobs  anywhere"  for 
a  child  so  ignorant  and  so  untrained. 

A  similar  case  is  that  of  Theresa  C ,  who  claimed  to  be 

fourteen  and  left  school  on  the  day  on  which,  according  to  the 
school  record,  she  was  only  twelve.  She  had  been  in  this 
country  nine  months  and  when  she  left  school  was  in  the  third 
grade.  The  school  principal  refused  to  sign  an  employment 
certificate,  but  she  had  learned  that  if  she  claimed  to  be  sixteen 
she  could  probably  get  work  without  a  certificate.  Although 
she  was  a  small  child  and  did  not  look  older  than  twelve,  she 
found  work  in  a  fashionable  dressmaking  establishment  for  two 
months,  and  then  in  a  large  department  store  for  three  months. 
At  the  latter  place  she  was  "laid  off"  because  the  factory 
inspector  came  around  and  questioned  her  right  to  work.  The 
school  seemed  to  have  made  no  effort  to  have  her  returned,  but 
the  social  worker  to  whom  she  applied  for  assistance  in  finding 
"another  job"  got  her  returned  to  school;  and  she  is  there  now 
waiting  until  a  letter  can  be  obtained  from  Italy  with  a  copy 
of  her  birth  record. 

The  serious  aspect  of  this  situation  lies  not  only  in  the  fact 
of  the  child's  loss  of  schooling  but  in  the  encouragement  of  false 
statements  made  to  deceive  both  employer  and  factory  in- 
spector. One  little  girl  who  spoke  quite  innocently  of  her  "real 
age"  and  her  "working  age"  seemed,  in  company  with  many 
others,  to  have  no  sense  of  wrong-doing.  She  was  trying  to  help 
a  sorely  pressed  family  and  merely  regretted  that  the  difficulties 
placed  in  her  way  by  the  law  had  to  be  overcome  by  misstate- 
ments.  Yet  the  moral  effect  must  be  harmful  to  the  child  who 
is  compelled  to  lie  in  order  to  get  work  and  finds  it  profitable 
to  do  so. 


298     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Another  loophole  through  which  children  seem  to  escape 
from  school  before  the  compulsory  age  limit  has  been  reached 
is  by  graduation  from  the  eighth  grade.  The  Illinois  law  does 
not  exempt  from  school  attendance  the  children  who  finish  the 
elementary  school  before  their  fourteenth  birthday.  Legally 
such  children  are  required  to  attend  the  free  public  high  schools 
or  some  other  school  until  the  fourteenth  birthday  has  been 
reached.  But  when  a  child  feels  that  because  he  has  graduated 
from  the  eighth  grade  he  is  entitled  to  a  certificate,  he  seems  to 
find  it  not  too  difficult  to  go  to  work  anyway.  Such  was  the  case 

of  Henry  F ,  who  graduated  from  the  elementary  school 

seven  months  before  his  fourteenth  birthday.  In  this  case 
the  boy,  who  was  very  large  and  tall,  got  a  job  for  the  summer 
and  then  decided  that  he  would  not  return  to  school,  as  he 
should  have  done  in  September  under  the  compulsory  school 
law.  He  had  never  attended  a  parochial  school,  but  he  got 
a  certificate  from  the  school  connected  with  the  church  where 
he  had  been  confirmed.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  had  a  certifi- 
cate he  found  that  he  could  get  a  better  job  by  not  using  it  and 
by  saying  that  he  was  sixteen  years  old.  The  factory  inspector 
discovered  that  he  was  not  sixteen,  and  he  was  discharged,  but 
by  that  time  he  had  reached  his  fourteenth  birthday  and  there- 
fore could  not  be  compelled  to  return  to  school.  This  case  and 
several  similar  ones  that  have  come  to  notice  are  instances  of 
peculiar  wastef  ulness,  since  the  children  are  unusually  bright  and 
ambitious  and  likely  to  come  from  homes  in  which  their  earnings 
are  not  necessary. 

An  adequate  compulsory  education  law  should  contain  not 
only  a  statement  concerning  the  age  at  which  the  child  may 
legally  leave  school  to  go  to  work  but  also  provisions  requiring 
that  the  child  meet  physical  and  educational  tests  of  fitness  to 
work.  Neither  the  Illinois  child  labor  law  nor  the  compulsory 
education  law  contains  a  provision  requiring  that  the  child  be 
shown  to  be  physically  fit  before  his  working  papers  are  issued. 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  CERTIFICATE  SYSTEM       299 

The  Illinois  child  labor  law  which  was  enacted  in  1893  con- 
tained a  clause  providing  that  a  factory  inspector  might  require 
a  certificate  of  physical  fitness  from  a  physician  of  good  stand- 
ing if  a  child  who  was  found  at  work  appeared  physically  unable 
to  do  the  work  at  which  he  was  engaged.  Mrs.  Kelley  was 
chief  factory  inspector  at  the  time,  and  an  attempt  was  made 
to  use  this  clause.  It  was,  however,  found  to  be  unenforceable.1 
No  appropriation  is  made  for  the  payment  of  medical  fees,  and 
without  this,  proper  certificates  cannot  be  obtained.  If  certi- 
fying physicians  are  not  appointed  and  any  doctor  is  allowed 
to  issue  certificates,  a  physician  can  always  be  found  who  for  the 
sake  of  a  fee  is  willing  to  certify  that  any  child  is  physically  fit 
for  work.  Although  this  provision  of  the  child  labor  law  has 
never  been  repealed,  no  one  of  Mrs.  Kelley 's  successors  has 
repeated  her  attempts  to  enforce  it,  and  although  our  Illinois 
Child  Labor  law  still  contains  a  provision  that  a  child  who  is 
found  in  an  occupation  for  which  he  is  physically  unfit  should 
not  be  left  working  in  that  occupation  by  the  inspecting  officer, 
the  provision  was  and  is  a  dead  letter.  At  present,  chil- 
dren who  are  physically  handicapped  in  every  way  are  given 
working  papers,  and  they  cannot  legally  be  prevented  from 
working  at  occupations  which  are  exceedingly  dangerous  for 
them.  It  is  true  that  the  child  labor  law  prohibits  any  child 
between  fourteen  and  sixteen  from  working  at  a  "dangerous 
occupation,"  but  of  course  this  means  only  occupations  danger- 
ous for  a  normal  child,  not  for  a  child  with  weak  heart,  weak 
lungs  or  other  physical  disability. 

Among  children  who  are  granted  employment  certificates 
are  children  who  have  been  too  ill  to  attend  school  regularly, 
children  who  are  lame  and  crippled,  children  with  heart  disease, 
and  tubercular  children  who  have  been  in  the  open-air  schools, 
which  are  maintained  at  heavy  expense  for  the  sake  of  bringing 

1  See  ante,  chap,  v,  "  Parallel  Development  of  Child  Labor  and  Edu- 
cation Laws,"  p.  73,  and  Appendix  III,  p.  403. 


300     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

these  children  up  to  a  proper  standard  of  physical  fitness.  The 
wastefulness  of  granting  working  certificates  to  children  who 
have  just  come  out  of  special  open-air  schools  is  obvious.  At 
the  present  time  in  spite  of  all  the  additional  care  and  expense 
that  have  been  devoted  to  these  children  by  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation and  the  private  agency  assisting  in  this  work,  the  law 
allows  them  to  walk  out  of  the  open-air  schools  on  their  four- 
teenth birthday  and  to  go  to  work  in  occupations  that  are  almost 
certain  to  be  injurious  to  them.  Indeed,  there  seems  to  be  no  suit- 
able employment  available  for  an  open-air  school  child  between 
the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen.  Some  form  of  outdoor  em- 
ployment would  no  doubt  be  best,  yet  often  this  work  requires 
the  carrying  of  heavy  packages  and  it  is  usually  "blind-alley" 
work.  There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  importance  of 
requiring  these  children  to  remain  in  school  at  least  until  the 
sixteenth  birthday,  instead  of  allowing  them  to  find  "jobs" 
that  many  of  them  are  in  the  long  run  not  able  to  hold.  A  few 
cases  which  follow  will  throw  some  light  on  this  problem. 

Katie  I finished  the  fifth  grade  in  the  open-air  school. 

She  was  the  youngest  in  a  family  of  two  children,  and  as  soon 
as  she  got  her  working  papers  she  found  a  job  in  a  peanut 
factory,  where  she  shelled  peanuts  at  a  rate  of  ten  cents  for 
every  three  pounds.  She  was,  however,  still  going  to  the  hospital 
twice  a  week  to  have  her  lungs  examined.  She  left  the  factory 
after  a  few  weeks  because  the  ventilation  was  poor  and  she  was 
compelled  to  stoop  continuously  in  her  work.  The  "forelady" 
told  her  that  she  had  better  give  up  the  work.  Her  next  posi- 
tion was  a  "scab-job"  in  a  tailor  shop,  sewing  pants.  She 
got  this  position  during  a  strike,  and  a  policeman  escorted  her 
to  work  every  day.  She  found,  of  course,  that  conditions  of 
work  were  no  more  favorable  here  than  in  the  other  place. 

Jake  S — • ,  the  oldest  of  five  children,  finished  the  sixth 

grade  in  the  open-air  school.  His  father  was  a  janitor  and 
worked  regularly  but  thought  that  Jake  ought  to  "help,"  since 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  CERTIFICATE  SYSTEM       301 

he  was  old  enough  to  work.  Jake  worked  as  a  department 
store  wagon  boy  for  two  years,  and  then  left  because  he  could 
not  get  his  wages  raised.  His  next  job  was  that  of  elevator  boy 
in  a  downtown  building,  where  he  worked  for  six  months.  He 
was  sick  and  "the  boss  fired  him."  Then  he  got  a  job  in  a 
factory,  but  was  discharged  at  the  end  of  the  first  week  because 
he  was  not  strong  enough  to  do  the  work.  He  next  worked  as 
delivery  boy  for  a  department  store,  but  he  had  to  carry  heavy 
boxes  of  groceries  upstairs;  so  the  work  proved  too  heavy  for 
him  and  he  left. 

Morris  R finished  the  fifth  grade  in  the  open-air 

school  at  the  age  of  fourteen.  He  had  been  in  this  country  only 
four  years.  His  first  position  was  in  a  tailor  shop,  where  he 
worked  for  one  year,  but  finally  left  because  the  steam  hi  the 
shop  made  him  sick. 

Henry  W left  the  open-air  school  at  fourteen,  having 

finished  the  sixth  grade.  His  first  job  was  in  a  drug  store, 
where  he  worked  as  errand  boy.  He  held  this  position  for  two 
and  a  half  years,  and  was  then  laid  off.  He  next  worked  as 
errand  boy  for  a  ready-made  clothing  concern,  but  at  the  end 
of  six  months  the  firm  failed.  Then  he  worked  in  a  wholesale 
house  for  two  and  a  half  years,  but  the  dust  in  the  room  where 
he  worked  was  bad  for  him,  and  the  manager  advised  him 
to  leave  on  account  of  his  physical  condition  and  to  find 
out-of-door  employment.  He  was  then  twenty  years  of 
age  and  was  faced  with  the  difficult  problem  of  finding  "light 
work." 

Chris  J left  the  open-air  school  when  he  was  fourteen. 

His  first  job  was  with  a  contractor  for  whom  he  worked  as 
water  boy  for  two  months.  He  then  found  a  new  place  as  water 
boy  for  another  contractor  and  worked  for  another  month. 
He  was  then  "out  of  a  job"  and  found  work  tossing  bricks, 
clearly  an  unsuitable  place  for  any  boy  even  if  he  had  not  been 
in  the  open-air  school. 


302     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Elsie  B finished  the  sixth  grade  in  the  open-air  school 

at  the  age  of  fourteen.  Her  father  was  dead,  and  as  she  was 
the  oldest  of  four  children  the  mother  insisted  that  she  leave 
school  and  go  to  work.  Her  first  position  was  in  an  ice-cream 
cone  factory,  where  she  earned  $2 . 50  a  week,  but  working 
conditions  in  the  factory  were  bad,  and  she  was  unable  to  keep 
the  position  more  than  two  or  three  weeks.  She  was  fortunate 
in  coming  under  the  observation  of  the  school  nurse  who  sent 
her  to  a  social  agency  for  advice.  A  scholarship  was  then  pro- 
vided so  that  she  might  go  to  the  Hull-House  Trade  School  and 
not  be  sent  back  to  work  until  she  was  older  and  stronger. 

Another  group  of  children  whose  physical  condition  fre- 
quently makes  it  unsuitable  for  them  to  go  to  work  are  the  chil- 
dren of  the  women  who  are  receiving  "widows'  pensions"  from 
the  Juvenile  Court.  The  court  has  set  a  high  standard  of  relief 
and  of  care  for  these  children,  but  in  general  they  are  in  a 
very  anaemic  condition  when  they  come  under  the  care  of  the 
court,  probably  because  of  privation  during  their  father's  illness. 
These  children  are  all  examined  by  a  physician,  and  although 
not  physically  incapacitated  they  are  underfed  and  frequently 
undersized  and  too  weak  for  any  of  the  "jobs"  that  are  avail- 
able for  them.  It  is,  however,  illegal  for  the  court  to  grant 
any  money  for  the  care  of  any  child  after  his  fourteenth  birth- 
day, when  the  law  permits  him  to  go  to  work. 

While  excellent  work  has  been  done  recently  by  the  Bureau 
of  Employment  Supervision  through  its  Volunteer  Scholarship 
Committee  by  securing  the  return  to  school  and  special  voca- 
tional training  for  delicate  children,  this  committee  can  at  best 
meet  the  needs  of  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  children  needing 
care.  A  study  of  their  scholarship  cases  would  indicate,  how- 
ever, the  great  importance  of  requiring  that  all  children  who 
go  to  work  must  meet  certain  tests  of  physical  fitness.  For 
example,  a  little  girl  of  fourteen  who  had  been  out  of  school  with 
St.  Vitus  dance  for  two  or  three  years  before  her  fourteenth  birth- 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  CERTIFICATE  SYSTEM       303 

day,  but  claimed  a  working  permit  a  fortnight  after  she  was 
fourteen,  asserting  that  she  was  "well  now,"  was  referred  to 
this  committee.  The  child's  earnings  were  so  much  needed  in 
the  home  that  a  scholarship  was  provided  as  the  only  means  of 
keeping  her  from  unsuitable  work.  Another  fourteen-year-old 
girl,  small  for  her  age,  had  been  in  the  sixth  grade  seventy- 
two  weeks.  The  mother  said  that  the  child  evidently  could 
not  learn  and  there  was  no  use  in  sending  her  to  school  any 
longer.  An  examination  showed  that  the  child  was  subnormal, 
not  mentally  but  physically.  The  Department  of  Child-Study 
reported  that  she  had  only  the  strength  of  a  normal  child  of 
twelve,  that  she  was  in  bad  physical  condition,  and  that  she 
should  not  go  to  work  under  any  circumstances.  It  was, 
however,  just  an  accident  that  this  child  was  taken  to  the 
department  for  examination,  whereas  such  a  report  should  be 
required  for  every  child  who  is  leaving  school  to  claim  an 
employment  certificate.  Nothing  can  be  satisfactory  except 
the  systematic  examination  of  every  child  and  a  compulsory 
return  to  school  or  to  some  agency  that  can  provide  proper  treat- 
ment for  every  child  physically  unfit  for  work. 

Adequate  child  labor  and  compulsory  education  laws  should 
provide  not  only  that  the  child  who  leaves  school  to  go  to  work 
should  have  reached  a  minimum  standard  of  physical  fitness, 
but  also  a  minimum  standard  of  education.  Unfortunately 
the  present  Illinois  law  prescribes  no  educational  qualification 
for  the  school-leaving  child  except  an  absolutely  inadequate  and 
unenforceable  provision  that  if  he  "cannot  read  at  sight  and 
write  legibly  simple  sentences"  the  certificate  shall  be  issued 
only  on  condition  that  he  is  regularly  attending  an  evening 
school.  The  law  further  provides  that  when  there  are  no  evening 
schools  in  session,  age-and-school  certificates  shall  not  be  issued 
to  children  who  cannot  meet  the  reading  and  writing  require- 
ments. Unfortunately,  for  reasons  which  will  be  discussed 
later,  the  evening  school  provision  is  practically  a  dead  letter. 


304     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

The  educational  test  prescribed — that  of  being  able  "to 
read  at  sight  and  write  legibly  simple  sentences" — would,  even 
if  it  were  enforced,  be  a  wholly  inadequate  one.  And  it  is 
important  to  note  that  in  this  matter  of  establishing  a  minimum 
standard  of  education  that  must  be  attained  before  a  child  is 
permitted  to  leave  school  Illinois  is  shockingly  behind  other 
states.  In  New  York,  for  example,  a  child  must  not  only  be 
able  to  read  and  to  write  simple  sentences  in  English  (important 
words  omitted  in  the  Illinois  law)  but  must  also  have  a  knowl- 
edge of  fractions.  In  practice,  it  is  held  that  this  means  that 
a  child  must  have  completed  the  fifth  grade.  In  Massachusetts, 
Connecticut,  Ohio,  and  several  other  states  the  educational  test 
is  equally  high  or  higher,  but  Illinois  has  been  content  to  lag 
behind  without  attempting  to  keep  its  illiterate  minors  in 
school. 

It  is  important  to  note,  too,  that  slight  as  is  the  educational 
test  provided,  this  test  is  not  given  to  children  when  they  apply 
for  certificates.  The  statute  provides  that  "the  certificate  of 
the  principal  of  a  public  or  parochial  school  shall  be  prima  facie 
evidence  as  to  the  literacy  or  illiteracy  of  the  child."  It  is 
assumed,  of  course,  that  principals  will  give  certificates  only  to 
children  who  have  attended  their  schools,  but  practice  varies 
with  the  type  of  principal  in  charge.  For  example,  two  boys 

named  K — : ,  belonging  to  a  Polish  family  that  had  moved 

to  Chicago  from  Canada,  obtained  certificates  from  a  public- 
school  principal  although  they  had  not  attended  his  school. 
A  social  worker  who  was  investigating  the  case  because  there 
seemed  some  good  reason  for  believing  that  at  least  one  of  the  boys 
was  under  fourteen  expressed  surprise  that  the  principal  should 
have  issued  certificates  to  children  who  had  not  been  members 
of  his  school.  The  principal  said  that  he  did  not  usually  do 
this,  but  that  when  children  had  "a  hard-luck  story,  especially 
last  winter,"  he  had  given  some  certificates  to  boys  whom  he 
had  examined  in  his  office  and  considered  "worthy"  of  certifi- 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  CERTIFICATE  SYSTEM       305 

cates.  In  this  case,  the  boys  could  not  be  proved  to  be  under 
age  and  therefore  their  certificates  could  not  be  canceled.  But 
there  was  equally  no  proof  that  they  were  old  enough  to  work; 
they  were  in  fact  so  illiterate  and  incompetent  that  they  were  in 
work  very  little  of  the  time,  and  were  becoming  demoralized  by 
idleness  and  bad  company. 

A  somewhat  similar  case  is  that  of  Salvatore  C ,  a 

little  boy  who  was  lame  and  a  hunchback,  but  who  had  left 
school  when  he  was  only  twelve  years  and  nine  months  old. 
This  child  was  sent  to  the  Juvenile  Court  for  employment  by 
the  principal  of  an  elementary  school.  A  lady  had  found  the 
child  on  the  street  and  had  taken  him  into  the  nearest  school 
to  see  if  the  principal  could  do  anything  for  him.  Though 
the  boy  had  never  attended  this  school,  the  principal  gave 
him  a  certificate  and  then  sent  him  on  to  the  Juvenile  Court 
to  see  if  a  probation  officer  could  not  find  work  for  him.  The 
principal  of  the  school,  when  questioned  about  the  child's  age 
and  school  record,  said  that  Salvatore  had  been  brought  in  to 
him  by  a  lady  who  said  that  the  boy  was  in  need.  He  issued 
the  certificate  as  a  matter  of  accommodation  after  finding  that 
the  boy  could  read  and  write  "a  little." 

The  children  who  are  given  age-and-school  certificates  fall 
into  two  groups:  those  who  have  been  attending  school  in 
Chicago  prior  to  the  granting  of  a  certificate  and  whose  illiteracy 
should  be  a  matter  of  school  record  and  those  who  come  from 
outside  of  Chicago  and  who  have  no  school  certificates  to 
present  at  the  "issuing  bureau"  as  evidence  of  their  right  to 
employment  certificates.  But  whether  a  child  comes  from  the 
Chicago  schools  or  not,  there  is  no  way  under  the  law  of  keeping 
him  in  school  if  he  is  unable  to  meet  the  "reading  or  writing 
test."  The  Chicago  child,  for  example,  who  is  in  the  first 
grade  and  who  is  therefore  presumably  illiterate  can  under  the 
law  be  granted  a  working  certificate  only  if  he  brings  a  certificate 
showing  that  he  has  enrolled  in  evening  school,  and  thereafter 


306     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

his  working  certificate  is  to  continue  in  force  only  as  long  as  the 
child's  regular  attendance  at  evening  school  is  certified  weekly 
by  the  teacher  and  the  principal.  But  the  law  makes  no 
provision  regarding  the  person  to  whom  the  report  is  to  be 
made.  The  issuing  bureau  has  been  in  charge  of  a  civil  service 
clerk1  who  has  no  follow-up  machinery  and,  knowing  that  the 
evening  school  provision  cannot  be,  in  general,  enforced  takes 
no  notice  of  it.  The  illiteracy  provision  is  therefore  practically 
a  dead  letter.  Sometimes  a  school  principal  refuses  a  certificate 
to  an  illiterate  child,  but  he  is  probably  acting  illegally  when  he 
does  so.  And  in  general  the  child  or  the  parents  find  some  way 
of  getting  the  desired  paper.  For  example,  an  Italian  boy, 

Peter  G ,  who  had  been  in  this  country  three  years,  was 

in  the  third  grade  at  the  end  of  the  school  term  in  June.  He 
was  not  fourteen  until  the  following  October,  but  did  not  return 
to  school  in  September  because  he  found  a  job  carrying  water  for 
a  railroad  gang.  Later  when  he  tried  to  get  a  work  certificate, 
the  principal  of  the  school  refused  to  give  him  one  on  the  ground 
that  he  had  not  had  enough  schooling.  The  boy  refused  to 
return  to  school,  however,  and  enrolled  in  the  evening  class  of 
another  elementary  school  and  got  a  certificate  from  the  even- 
ing school  principal.  When  he  applied  to  a  social  agency  for 
assistance  in  finding  a  "job,"  he  had  been  out  of  work  for  nearly 
a  year.  He  had  never  been  to  school  in  Italy,  he  could  not  read 
or  write  in  Italian,  he  could  not  understand  anything  but  very 

1  It  seems  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that  a  position  which  brings 
the  official  into  such  close  contact  with  children  and  parents  at  a  critical 
moment  in  their  experience  should  be  filled  by  a  person  of  dignity  and  com- 
petence. Under  the  circumstances  the  Board  of  Education  would  do  well  to 
place  in  charge  of  the  issuing  bureau  a  person  taken  from  the  group  of  intelli- 
gent and  successful  principals  in  whom  the  children  would  feel  confidence,  on 
whose  judgment  the  parents  could  look  with  respect.  Such  a  person  could 
render  great  service  to  the  other  principals  by  calling  their  attention  to  the 
importance  of  the  part  they  play  in  giving  the  children  the  preliminary 
statement  of  educational  requirements. 


3°7 


simple  English  words,  he  could  not  read  English,  and  could 
write  only  his  name.  What  a  preparation  for  American  life! 
Moreover,  in  such  cases,  the  sacrifice  of  the  child's  schooling 
is  made  in  vain.  He  leaves  school  to  go  to  work,  but  he  cannot 
find  work.  He  finds  that  his  employment  certificate,  which  he 
had  obtained  with  so  much  difficulty,  is  of  no  assistance  to  him, 
and  he  soon  becomes  discouraged  and  demoralized.  The  case 

of  Peter  G was  discovered  when  the  family  applied  to  the 

United  Charities  for  help.  The  father  had  been  ill  for  two 
months,  the  boy,  Peter,  had  had  no  work  for  nearly  twelve 
months,  and  no  one  else  in  the  family  was  working. 

The  cases  that  have  been  given  show  that  there  is  no 
literacy  test  enforced  in  Chicago  at  the  present  tune  as  a  pre- 
requisite to  the  issue  of  working  papers.  This  is,  moreover,  a 
matter  of  public  record.  Table  XXXI  shows  the  grade  last  at- 

TABLE  XXXI 

NUMBER  OF  CHILDREN  IN  SPECIFIED  GRADES  RECEIVING  AGE- AND- SCHOOL 
CERTIFICATES  FROM  CHICAGO  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS,  1904-7,  1909,  1912-14 


GRADE 

_T3 

§  I  s 

YEAR 

js  a 
~  a 

^ 

S  9  S 

ENDING 

Irf 

SB  § 

3  H  3 

2 

JUNE  30* 

M 

J3 

ja 

H.fe 

11 

Ejjjjj 

1 

- 

a 
g 

!§ 

•e 

ja 

J3 

I 

1 

•&    >'o 

W 

&^ 

H 

E 

• 

C/5 

H 

1 

E 

i/5 

1 

|SH 

1914. 

30 

58 

252 

695 

1,584 

2,347 

2,633 

4,034 

919 

70 

i,  on 

13,633 

1913. 

56 

203 

756 

1,622 

2,396 

2,56l 

3,257 

621 

56 

1,040 

12,583 

1912. 

27 

57 

25Q 

727 

1,816 

2,521 

2,647 

3,204 

856 

20 

1,169 

13,303 

1909. 

32 

IO2 

348 

1,075 

2,073 

2,579 

2,433 

2,378 

770 

33 

815 

12,638 

1907. 

10 

III 

332 

1,002 

1,917 

'  2,396 

2,146 

2,956 

464 

57 

284 

".675 

1906. 

3 

82 

302 

941 

2,030 

2,492 

2,115 

2,131 

389 

63 

87 

10,635 

1905. 

7 

106 

249 

981 

2,174 

2,502 

2,355 

2,418 

488 

80 

182 

",542 

1904. 

5 

88 

563 

1,294 

2,978 

2,722 

2,514 

3,1" 

493 

64 

455 

14,287 

129 

660 

2,508 

7,471 

16,194 

19,955 

19404 

23,489 

5,000 

443 

5.043 

100,296 

*Data  for  the  years  1908,  1910,  1911,  are  not  given  in  the  Board  of  Education  reports. 

tended  by  the  children  who  were  given  employment  certificates 
when  they  left  the  public  schools.     A  study  of  this  table,  which 


308     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

covers  a  period  of  eight  years  and  shows  the  grades  reached  by 
more  than  one  hundred  thousand  working  children  indicates 
only  too  plainly  that,  in  general,  certificates  are  issued  without 
any  reference  to  the  educational  progress  of  the  children  who 
apply  for  them. 

According  to  this  table,  in  the  eight  years  for  which  infor- 
mation is  given,  there  have  been  129  certificates  issued  to  first- 
grade  children,  660  to  second-grade  children,  2,508  to  third- 
grade  children,  and  7,471  to  fourth-grade  children.  The  school 
records  show,  then,  that  during  a  period  of  eight  years  more  than 
ten  thousand  children  who  have  not  reached  the  fifth  grade  in 
school  were  given  working  papers  and  that  during  the  last 
school  year  for  which  information  is  available  more  than  a 
thousand  such  certificates  were  issued.  Unfortunately,  there 
are  no  similar  records  of  certificates  issued  by  parochial 
schools;  but  since  these  schools  have  a  larger  proportion  of 
foreign  children  than  the  public  schools,  it  is  to  be  expected 
that  their  children  would  be  more,  rather  than  less,  illiterate 
than  the  children  from  the  public  schools. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  next  Illinois  legislature  will  not 
shirk  the  task  of  prescribing  tests  both  of  physical  development 
and  of  educational  qualifications  which  will  prevent  the  early 
exhaustion  of  these  young  wage-earners  and  at  the  same  time 
lay  the  foundations  for  a  more  competent  citizenship.  The 
following  changes  in  the  Illinois  compulsory  education  law  are 
suggested  as  necessary  if  the  purpose  of  the  law  is  to  be  fulfilled 
and  the  issuance  of  working  papers  is  really  to  safeguard  the 
upper  limit  of  the  compulsory  age. 

i.  The  abolition  of  local  control  over  the  issuance  of  work- 
ing certificates  and  the  substitution  of  a  central  authority  acting 
through  a  state  bureau  or  department. — Under  the  present  system 
in  Illinois  which  leaves  the  local  educational  authorities  all  over 
the  state  free  to  be  as  lax  as  they  please  with  regard  to  the 
enforcement  of  the  compulsory  law,  the  law  will  never  be  ade- 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  CERTIFICATE  SYSTEM       309 

quately  enforced.  Difficulties  arise  first  because  the  local 
boards  of  education  are  frequently  lax  and  indifferent,  and 
secondly  because  any  supervision  of  the  issuing  of  certificates 
by  parochial  and  other  private  schools  is,  as  matters  stand, 
impossible.  At  present,  the  state  law  lays  down  certain  require- 
ments that  must  be  met  before  a  child  shall  be  granted  work- 
ing papers,  but  the  state  provides  no  department  and  no 
officials  to  see  that  the  provisions  of  this  law  are  enforced. 
If  the  issuing  of  the  employment  certificates  were  in  the  hands 
of  a  state  department  of  education,  then  public  and  private 
schools  alike  would  be  under  the  supervision  of  a  competent 
central  authority.  In  the  recent  valuable  study  of  the  Con- 
necticut employment  certificate  system  by  the  Children's 
Bureau  it  is  pointed  out  that 

the  strongest  single  feature  of  the  Connecticut  system  and,  indeed, 
the  source  of  most  of  its  other  strong  features,  seems  to  be  the  central- 
ization of  control  over  the  entire  procedure  relating  to  certificates 
throughout  the  state  in  the  hands  of  the  state  board  of  education. 
....  Every  child  who  obtains  an  employment  certificate  in  Con- 
necticut passes  substantially  the  same  test  of  his  qualifications,  and 
every  child  has  substantially  the  same  chance  of  receiving  the  actual 
protection  of  the  law. 

The  report  adds  that 

centralization  of  control  over  the  issuing  and  the  refusing  of  certifi- 
cates as  well  as  over  inspection  tends  to  efficiency  in  enforcement  as 
well  as  to  uniformity  in  standards. 

There  may  be  some  question  as  to  how  far  the  state  factory 
inspectors  may  serve  as  a  unifying  force,  but  as  to  their  inability 
to  enforce  satisfactorily  an  employment  certificate  system 
there  can  be  no  question.  The  factory  inspector's  method  must 
be  that  of  inspection  of  industrial  establishments,  and  this 
system  can  never  adequately  protect  the  working  child.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  the  investigators  of  the  Children's 


310     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Bureau  who  studied  the  employment  certificate  system  say 
emphatically  that 

industrial  inspection  is  only  one  method  of  enforcing  the  law  and  is 
probably  destined  to  decrease  in  importance  as  methods  of  locating 
and  following  up  children  are  improved. 

Furthermore,  that  while 

industrial  inspection  seems  to  be  essential  in  the  absence  of  a  com- 
plete and  permanent  census  of  all  children  subject  to  legal  regulation1 
....  it  can  never  be  an  efficient  method  of  enforcing  a  child  labor 
law,  for  children  may  be  here  today  and  there  tomorrow  and  the  cost 
of  inspecting  all  industrial  establishments  often  enough  to  locate 
such  unstable  elements  is  prohibitory.  Therefore  the  problem  of 
enforcing  a  child  labor  law  must,  like  the  problem  of  enforcing  a  com- 
pulsory education  law,  be  approached  from  the  side  of  the  indi- 
vidual child,  and  school  attendance  officers  must  be  authorized  to 
go,  at  their  discretion,  wherever  children  go,  even  if  this  power  means 
a  certain  amount  of  double  inspection  of  industrial  establishments. 
If  a  state  child  labor  law  is  to  be  thoroughly  enforced,  some  state 
agency  must  keep  a  record  of  the  whereabouts  of  every  child  in  the 
state,  whether  at  school  or  at  work. 

1  Children's  Bureau  Publication.  Employment  Certificate  System  in 
Connecticut,  by  Sumner  and  Hanks,  pp.  50-51. 

Although  the  Connecticut  law  is  vastly  superior  to  the  Illinois  law 
both  as  to  the  requirements  set  for  working  papers  and  as  to  the  means 
of  enforcement,  nevertheless  the  Children's  Bureau  investigators  found 
serious  defects  in  the  Connecticut  system  which  are  of  interest,  since  they 
also  exist  in  our  Illinois  system.  Thus  it  is  pointed  out  in  connection 
with  the  statements  quoted  above:  "At  present  the  State  Board  of  Edu- 
cation of  Connecticut  has,  at  least  theoretically,  such  a  record  of  all  children 
who  are  not  in  school.  There  are,  however,  two  glaring  sources  of  incom- 
pleteness in  these  records,  first,  that  children  engaged  in  agricultural  and 
domestic  pursuits  are  not  included,  and,  second,  that  there  is  no  efficient 
method  of  registering  newcomers  to  the  state.  Children  are  not  obliged 
to  have  employment  certificates  to  engage  in  farm  and  domestic  labor. 
This  means  not  only  that  children  leaving  school  to  go  to  work  in  these 
occupations  pass  no  educational  test  and  are  not  obliged  to  fulfil  any  edu- 
cational requirements,  but  also  that  the  names  of  such  children  are  not  on 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  CERTIFICATE  SYSTEM       311 

2.  Proof  of  age. — The  present  Illinois  law  fails  to  protect 
the  upper  limit  of  the  compulsory  period  because  no  satisfactory 
proof  of  age  is  required  before  a  work  certificate  is  issued.  The 
only  satisfactory  evidence  of  age  is,  of  course,  a  copy  of  the  child's 
birth  record,  and  the  issuing  of  employment  certificates  cannot 
be  properly  protected  until  an  adequate  system  of  birth  regis- 
tration is  enforced  not  only  in  Illinois,  but  in  other  American 
states.  An  adequate  vital  statistics  law  was  passed  at  the  last 
session  of  the  Illinois  legislature,  and  the  state  can  require  four- 
teen years  hence  that,  before  the  issuance  of  an  employment 
certificate,  native-born  children  must  submit  copies  of  their 
birth  records.  Until  that  time  arrives,  the  best  evidence  of  age 
is  that  furnished  by  the  school  records.  Greater  care,  however, 
should  be  taken  when  the  certificate  is  applied  for,  to  learn 
the  child's  correct  age,  that  is,  the  age  given  at  the  time  he 
first  enrolled  in  school,  and  not  the  age  recently  assumed  in 
order  to  obtain  a  certificate  to  which  he  is  not  entitled.  For 
foreign-born  children,  copies  of  birth  records  should  also  be 
required;  and  since  European  systems  of  birth  registration  are 
so  uniformly  superior  to  our  own,  this  documentary  proof  of 
age  could  easily  be  obtained.  Since  the  parents  are  often  so 
ignorant  and  helpless  in  the  matter  of  correspondence,1  a  public 

the  records  of  the  state  board  of  education.  Even  if  this  loophole  in  the 
law  is  not  generally  known  or  made  use  of  except  in  country  districts,  some 
record  of  these  children  should  be  kept,  it  would  seem,  by  the  state  board 
in  order  to  prevent  their  drifting  into  industrial  labor  without  certificates. 
As  for  the  registration  of  newcomers  to  the  State,  the  school  census,  even 
if  thoroughly  and  efficiently  handled  for  that  end — which  in  the  absence 
of  any  central  control  is  not  by  any  means  always  the  case — is  not  taken 
often  enough  to  accomplish  the  purpose." 

1  The  report  of  the  Children's  Bureau  on  the  Connecticut  employment 
certificate  system,  which  has  already  been  referred  to,  makes  the  following 
comment  on  this  point:  "If  a  foreign-born  child  has  a  passport  or  other 
similar  paper,  he  is  not  obliged  to  send  for  another  documentary  proof  of 
his  age;  but  if  he  cannot  produce  such  a  paper  his  parent  is  told  to  write 
to  the  place  where  he  was  born  for  a  birth  certificate.  The  agents  do  not 


312     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

official  might  well  be  required  to  send  the  necessary  letters  abroad 
asking  for  copies  of  the  birth-records  of  immigrant  children. 

Leaving  the  question  of  the  method  of  issuing  certificates 
and  the  question  of  enforcing  such  standards  as  are  prescribed, 
these  standards  should  themselves  be  discussed.  A  good  com- 
pulsory school  law  ought  to  provide  that  no  child  shall  be  given 
a  certificate  allowing  him  to  leave  school  to  go  to  work  unless 
he  had  reached  a  minimum  standard  of  age,  education,  and 
physical  development. 

3.  Minimum  age. — The  minimum  school-leaving  age  should 
be  sixteen  years  instead  of  fourteen  as  prescribed  in  the  present 
Illinois  law.    This  subject  is,  however,  discussed  at  length  in 
the  following  chapter  and  will  not  be  considered  here. 

4.  Minimum  standard  of  education. — It  has  been  pointed 
out  in  the  foregoing  pages  that  the  present  Illinois  law  contains 
an  absurdly  inadequate  educational  standard,  and  that  even 
this  low  standard  is  not  enforced.    The  minimum  standard 
should  not  only  include  reading  with  facility  and  "  writing 
legibly,"  but  the  words  "in  English,"  so  sorely  needed  in  our 
present  law,   should  be  added.    This  minimum  educational 
standard  should  also  include  a  knowledge  of  arithmetic  up  to 

state  to  whom  the  child  or  his  parent  should  write;  require  no  evidence  such 
as  a  registry  receipt  that  a  letter  has  been  written;  and  demand  no  proof 
later,  when  the  child  or  parent  returns  claiming  that  the  birth  record  cannot 

be  obtained,  that  such  is  actually  the  case While  waiting  the  receipt 

of  a  foreign  birth  record  or  a  communication  stating  that  it  cannot  be 
obtained,  the  child  is  not  allowed  to  work  but  must  go  to  school"  (p.  20). 
Further  comment  on  the  present  practice  in  Connecticut  is  made  as 
follows:  "Birth  registration,  it  is  well  known,  is  more  complete  in  most 
European  countries  than  in  the  United  States,  and  copies  of  birth  certifi- 
cates can  very  generally  be  obtained  for  foreign-born  children,  provided 
application  is  made  to  the  proper  official  and  the  regular  fee  is  sent.  Often, 
however,  parents  know  neither  to  whom  they  should  write  nor  the  amount 
of  money  to  send,  and  if  left  undirected  they  sometimes  write  to  relatives 
and  sometimes,  even  if  they  write  to  the  proper  official,  fail  to  send  the 
fee"  (p.  40). 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  CERTIFICATE  SYSTEM       313 

and  including  fractions.  Such  a  requirement  would  virtually 
insist  on  the  completion  of  the  fifth  grade,  which  is  indeed  a 
minimum  of  education  for  the  electorate  of  a  democracy!  In 
Illinois,  in  eight  years  for  which  records  are  available,  more  than 
10,000  children  who  had  not  reached  the  fifth  grade  had  been 
allowed  to  leave  school  to  go  to  work,  and  16,194  other  chil- 
dren were  in  the  fifth  grade  at  the  time  of  receiving  their  papers. 

Another  essential  requirement  is  that  school  records  should 
not  be  accepted  as  a  proof  of  educational  fitness.  The  law 
should  provide  for  the  giving  of  an  educational  test  by  the 
issuing  bureau  in  addition  to  the  principal's  certificate,  and  it 
has  already  been  recommended  that  this  bureau  should  be  placed 
under  state  control.  On  this  point  again  the  investigations  of 
the  Children's  Bureau  with  regard  to  the  working  of  the  Con- 
necticut employment  system  have  been  most  illuminating. 
The  Connecticut  law  provides  that  "in  order  to  obtain  an 
employment  certificate  a  child  must  be  able  to  read  with  facility, 
to  write  legibly  simple  sentences,  and  to  perform  the  operations 
of  the  fundamental  rules  of  arithmetic  with  relation  both  to 
whole  numbers  and  to  fractions."  This  Connecticut  standard, 
which  is  virtually  a  fifth-grade  requirement,  was  found  by 
the  investigators  of  the  Children's  Bureau  to  be  lowered  -by  the 
method  of  enforcement. 

On  this  point,  their  report  says: 

Fifth-grade  school  records  are  accepted  in  lieu  of  the  test  in 
practically  all  cities  and  towns,  except  Hartford,  where  large  num- 
bers of  children  are  employed,  and  teachers  or  principals  who  wish 
to  get  rid  of  backward  or  troublesome  children  may  therefore  be  able 

to  promote  them  out  of  school  into  industry In  many  other 

places  this  is  practically  impossible,  it  is  claimed,  as  promotions  are 
made  twice  a  year  as  the  result  of  examinations  which  are  checked  up 
in  the  office  of  the  superintendent  of  schools.  No  such  check  is 
placed  upon  private  schools,  and  the  state  board  of  education  itself 
uses  no  method  of  detecting  unearned  promotions.  The  records  of 


314     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

applicants  might  be  examined;  but  this  would  be  a  laborious  process 
as  compared  with  the  simple  expedient  of  requiring  every  child  to 
take  an  educational  test  regardless  of  the  grade  in  school — a  pro- 
cedure which  is  unquestionably  authorized  by  the  law. 

It  may  be  said,  then,  that  the  investigation  of  the  Children's 
Bureau  has  made  it  perfectly  clear  that  an  educational  standard 
is  of  little  value  unless  it  is  enforced  by  an  impartial  authority 
outside  of  the  school  system  and  enforced  on  the  basis  of  an 
examination  given  to  the  children  who  are  applicants  for  cer- 
tificates and  not  on  the  basis  of  reports  handed  in  by  local 
school  authorities. 

Something  should  perhaps  be  said  about  the  mentally 
deficient  children  who  can  never  reach  even  a  low  educational 
minimum.  Whether  or  not  such  children  should  be  perma- 
nently under  the  custody  of  the  state  in  an  educational  insti- 
tution is  a  question  to  be  discussed  by  experts.  But  it  is  only 
too  obvious  that  in  any  event  mentally  defective  children  should 
not  be  put  to  work  during  their  minority.1 

5.  Minimum  standard  of  physical  development. — Not  only 
should  the  state  require  that  every  child  should  have  reached 
a  minimum  standard  of  education  before  working  papers  are 
issued,  but  it  should  also  demand  that  children  should  meet  a 
certain  standard  of  physical  fitness  for  work  and  that  their 
condition  should  be  certified  by  examining  physicians  appointed 
by  the  educational  authorities.2 

1  The  report  of  the  Children's  Bureau  says  with  regard  to  the  present 
treatment  of  these  children  under  the  Connecticut  law:  "No  provision  is 
made  in  the  law  for  the  exemption  of  mentally  defective  children  from  the 
educational  requirements.  If  unable  to  finish  the  grade  requirement  or 
pass  the  educational  test  these  children  must  stay  in  school  until  they  are 
sixteen  years  of  age,  even  though  they  may  be  unable  to  make  any  progress 
in  the  subjects  taught"  (p.  41). 

"  A  recent  valuable  monograph  on  Mental  and  Physical  Measurements 
of  Working  Children,  by  Woolley  and  Fischer  (Psychological  Monographs, 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  CERTIFICATE  SYSTEM       315 

6.  Requirement  that  children  must  be  at  work  or  in  school. — 
Finally  no  employment  certificate  should  be  issued  until  the 
child  has  an  acceptable  promise  of  immediate  employment  that 
can  be  verified  by  the  school  authorities. 

This  last  requirement,  which  would  prevent  the  waste  and  the 
demoralization  that  now  result  from  the  child's  tramping  about 
in  search  of  work,  will,  however,  be  discussed  in  the  next  chapter. 

In  concluding  this  chapter,  attention  should  be  called  to  the 
importance  of  keeping  children  in  school  up  to  the  age  limit 

No.  77)  contains  the  following  statement  as  to  the  present  status  of  this 
problem: 

"There  are  very  few  instances  in  which  any  physical  standards  for  the 
admission  of  children  to  industry  have  been  adopted.  The  rule  of  the  New 
York  Board  of  Health  that  children  of  fourteen  must  be  at  least  4  ft.  8  in. 
in  height  and  at  least  80  Ibs.  in  weight  if  they  are  to  be  granted  working 
permits  is  perhaps  the  most  important  instance  of  the  application  of  a 
definite  physical  standard.  The  Department  of  Health  of  the  City  of  New 
York  cannot  be  too  highly  commended  for  having  taken  this  stand  on  so 
important  an  issue.  We  merely  wish  to  point  out  that,  on  the  basis  of  our 
results,  the  minimum  standards  of  height  and  weight  for  children  of  four- 
teen years  of  age  ought  not  to  be  the  same  for  the  two  sexes.  The  New 
York  standard  applied  to  our  own  series  of  753  fourteen-year-old  working 
children  would  have  excluded  nine  girls  and  twenty-seven  boys — three 
times  as  many  boys  as  girls.  The  New  York  department  probably  avoided 
this  kind  of  injustice  by  the  rule  that  any  child  who  fell  below  the  minimum 
standards  of  height  and  weight  had  the  right  of  further  physical  examina- 
tion, and  might  still  receive  his  working  papers  if  he  proved  thoroughly 
healthy  in  spite  of  his  small  size.  A  difference  of  standard  for  the  two  sexes, 
however,  would  obviate  the  necessity  for  some  of  these  special  examinations. 
For  states  which  have  a  minimum  age  of  fifteen  years  for  entering  industry, 
a  sex  difference  in  standards  of  height  and  weight  would  scarcely  be  neces- 
sary, since  the  differences  at  that  age  are  much  smaller  than  at  fourteen. 

"It  is  possible  that  other  factors  of  physical  development  in  addition 
to  height  and  weight  may  prove  to  be  valuable  guides  for  the  acceptance 
or  rejection  of  youthful  applicants  for  admission  to  industry.  Such  a  series 
of  measurements  as  we  have  presented  when  interpreted  in  the  light  of  sub- 
sequent industrial  histories  ought  to  offer  on  this  point  valuable  evidence" 
(p.  246). 


316     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

prescribed  by  the  law  in  a  state  where  the  age  of  entering  school 
is  placed  as  late  as  seven  years  by  the  compulsory  law.  A  child 
who  does  not  enter  school  until  he  is  seven  has,  at  best,  only  seven 
required  years  of  schooling  under  the  present  law.  He  should 
not  be  permitted  to  sacrifice  any  of  this  short  period  of  required 
attendance.  In  England,  where  the  child  is  required  to  begin 
school  at  the  age  of  five  and  in  Germany  and  in  some  of  our 
American  states  where  compulsory  attendance  begins  at  six,1 
the  period  of  required  attendance  is,  of  course,  longer  and  the 
child  who  escapes  before  the  end  of  the  compulsory  period  does 
not  sacrifice  so  much. 

The  chapter  that  follows  will  deal  with  the  present  condi- 
tions which  are  the  result  of  leaving  the  compulsory  age  limit  at 
fourteen  years  and  attempting  to  regulate  child  labor  between 
the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen. 

1  This  is  not  the  place  to  present  arguments  in  favor  of  making  the 
period  of  compulsory  attendance  begin  at  an  age  earlier  than  the  seven 
years  required  in  our  Illinois  law  and  quite  generally  in  American  states. 
Certainly  in  the  poorer  districts  of  our  cities  social  workers  must  be  impressed 
with  the  great  loss  to  children  who  spend  the  years  between  five  and  seven 
in  such  unfavorable  surroundings  when  they  might  have,  if  the  law  required 
it,  the  helpful  training  provided  in  the  public  school  kindergartens  and 
primary  grades.  The  late  enrolment  required  by  our  Illinois  law  is,  of 
course,  one  explanation  of  the  low  school  grade  reached  by  so  many 
children  who  receive  employment  certificates  (see  ante,  p.  307).  If  for 
some  reason  it  is  undesirable  to  require  parents  to  send  their  children  to 
school  at  the  age  of  five  or  six  then  there  is  every  reason  why  the  law  should 
prescribe  not  only  the  attainment  of  a  specific  age  but  also  a  specific  edu- 
cational standard  before  granting  exemption  from  compulsory  attendance. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE  NEED   OF   COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  FOR  CHILDREN 
BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SIXTEEN  YEARS  OF  AGE 

In  the  year  1907  the  compulsory  education  law  of  Illinois, 
which  had  made  school  attendance  compulsory  for  children 
between  the  ages  of  seven  and  fourteen  years,  was  so  amended 
as  to  include  all  children  between  the  ages  of  seven  and  sixteen 
years.  The  new  law  provided,  however,  that  exemption  from 
school  attendance  might  be  granted  to  any  child  between  the 
ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen  years  whenever  the  child  was 
"necessarily  and  lawfully  employed"  during  the  hours  when 
the  public  school  was  in  session.  That  is,  the  new  law  nominally 
made  school  attendance  compulsory  up  to  the  age  of  sixteen  in 
one  sentence  and  in  the  next  sentence  went  back  to  the  old 
system  and  provided  that  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen 
might  be  either  at  school  or  at  work. 

The  real  difficulty  with  the  amended  law  of  1907  was  that 
once  more  the  parallel  development  of  the  child  labor  and  the 
compulsory  education  laws  had  been  neglected.  The  compul- 
sory attendance  law  could  not  keep  children  in  school  if  the 
child  labor  law  permitted  them  to  go  to  work.  Foreseeing  this 
complication,  the  authors  of  the  1907  amendment  evidently 
thought  that  it  would  be  practicable  to  make  school  attend- 
ance compulsory  for  the  fourteen-  to  sixteen-year-old  children 
who  were  not  at  work.  In  practice,  however,  the  provision  that 
children  must  be  either  at  school  or  at  work  has  proved  to  be  an 
unenforceable  one.  In  the  first  place  there  is  no  machinery  for 
keeping  track  of  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  and  of 
finding  out  whether  or  not  the  child  who  has  been  given  a  work 
certificate  is  or  is  not  at  work.  This  could  be  done  only  if  the 

317 


318     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

compulsory  education  department  or  some  similar  agency  were 
required  to  keep  a  register  of  such  children  and  of  their  places 
of  employment.  In  a  few  states,  for  example,  an  employer 
when  he  discharges  a  child  is  required  to  return  the  child's  work 
certificate  to  the  school  authorities.  When  this  is  done,  the 
child  can  be  returned  to  school  if  he  does  not  find  work  at  once. 

The  Illinois  child  labor  law  unfortunately  provides  (sec.  20  f) 
that  the  age-and-school  certificate  shall  be  the  property  of  the 
child  and  shall  be  surrendered  to  him  when  he  leaves  one  em- 
ployer to  seek  another.  If  the  child  fails  to  claim  the  paper 
within  thirty  days,  the  employer  should  return  it  to  the  edu- 
cation authority  issuing  it,  but  there  is  no  penalty  provided 
for  the  employer  who  fails  to  comply  with  the  requirement 
that  he  return  the  child's  working  papers. 

It  may  be  said  with  regard  to  the  enforcement  of  the  pro- 
vision hi  the  Illinois  law  that  the  child  between  fourteen  and 
sixteen  must  be  either  at  work  or  at  school,  that  at  both  ends 
of  the  line  the  law  breaks  down:  neither  in  the  compulsory 
education  office  nor  in  that  of  the  factory  inspector  are  there 
provisions  for  the  enforcement  of  this  requirement.  Employers 
very  rarely  return  uncalled-for  certificates,  and  an  additional 
weakness  here  is  that  employers  are  open  to  the  temptation  of 
using  such  a  certificate  for  some  illegally  employed  child. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  provision  that  purported  to  bring 
children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  under  the  compulsory 
education  .law  in  1907  was  on  the  face  of  it  wholly  inadequate. 
By  exempting  from  the  law  all  children  who  were  lawfully 
employed,  the  provision  was  made  incapable  of  enforcement. 
What  the  law  seems  to  mean  is  that  any  child  who  has  an 
employment  certificate  and  pretends  to  be  wanting  a  "job" 
is  to  be  exempt  from  school  attendance;  but,  again,  no  attempt 
is  made  to  keep  a  record  of  fourteen-  to  sixteen-year-old  children 
who  have  not  taken  employment  certificates,  and  certainly  many 
girls  stay  at  home  without  them. 


CHILDREN  BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SIXTEEN     319 

Another  point  to  be  discussed  in  connection  with  the 
statutory  exemptions  regarding  the  children  between  fourteen 
and  sixteen  is  the  provision  that  the  children  between  these 
ages  who  are  excused  from  school  attendance  are,  in  the  precise 
words  of  the  statute,  those  who  are  "necessarily  and  lawfully 
employed  during  the  hours  when  the  public  school  is  in  session," 
and  the  question  must  be  raised  as  to  what  meaning  is  to  be 
attached  to  the  words  "necessarily  ....  employed."  Ob- 
viously none  at  all,  unless  some  machinery  is  provided  for 
investigating  the  home  circumstances  of  each  child  who  applies 
for  a  work  certificate.  No  such  machinery  was  provided 
for  in  the  law  and  during  the  first  six  years  after  the  passage  of 
the  amendment  those  charged  with  the  enforcement  of  the  law 
seemed  to  overlook  the  provision  that  children  must  be  "neces- 
sarily employed."  In  an  occasional  instance,  some  principal 
or  settlement  worker  might  persuade  a  child  who  seemed  to 
come  from  a  sufficiently  comfortable  home  in  which  his  earnings 
were  not  needed,  to  return  to  school,  but,  in  general,  any  child 
who  reached  the  age  of  fourteen  could  obtain  a  work  certificate. 
After  the  establishment  of  the  Bureau  of  Employment  Super- 
vision,1 the  social  workers  employed  there  found  that  there  were 
many  cases  of  children  who  could  be  persuaded  to  return  to 
school  because  their  earnings  were  not  needed  in  the  home, 
and  the  waste  that  resulted  from  their  leaving  school  auto- 
matically, as  it  were,  on  their  fourteenth  birthday  was  clearly 
demonstrated. 

No  systematic  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  school  authorities 
to  enforce  the  provision  of  the  law  that  children  must  be 
necessarily  as  well  as  lawfully  employed  if  they  were  to  be 
exempt  from  school  attendance  seems  to  have  been  made  until 
June,  1913,  which  was  nearly  six  years  after  the  law  was  passed. 

1  See  Appendix  VII  for  an  account  of  this  bureau,  which  was  organized 
in  connection  with  this  investigation  into  the  working  of  the  compulsory 
law. 


320     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Influenced  possibly  by  the  work  of  the  Employment  Supervision 
Bureau,  the  Department  of  Compulsory  Education  then  placed 
an  officer  in  the  Age-and-School  Certificate  Bureau  to  interview 
all  children  applying  for  employment  certificates.  During  the 
first  few  weeks  after  the  close  of  school  when  literally  swarms  of 
children  crowd  the  issuing  bureau,  it  is  of  course  impossible  for 
a  single  officer  to  interview  all  children  applying  for  papers, 
but  in  normal  times  an  effort  seems  to  be  made  to  interview 
all  applicants,  supposedly  in  order  to  determine  whether  or 
not  the  child's  employment  is  "necessary."  If  not  "necessary," 
the  work  certificate  might  then  be  refused.  In  the  school  year 
1913-14  the  representative  of  the  Department  of  Compulsory 
Education  challenged  the  issuance  of  a  certificate  to  a  little  girl, 
the  child  of  a  saloon-keeper,  whose  earnings  were  obviously  not 
needed  in  the  family.  The  child  was  refused  a  certificate,  but 
the  father  in  turn  refused  to  allow  her  to  return  to  school.  The 
Department  of  Compulsory  Education  thereupon  took  the  case 
into  the  Municipal  Court  and  asked  that  the  child's  return  to 
school  be  enforced  under  the  compulsory  law  since  she  was  not 
"lawfully  employed."  The  Municipal  Court  judge  who  heard 
the  case  decided  that  the  child  must  be  returned  to  school. 
The  father  did  not  carry  the  case  to  a  higher  court,  and  it  stands 
therefore  as  a  precedent.  The  decision,  however,  seems  to  have 
been  made,  not  on  the  ground  that  the  child  was  unnecessarily 
employed,  but  that  she  was  not  employed  at  all. 

More  recently  a  bulletin  has  been  issued  from  the  office 
of  the  superintendent  of  the  Chicago  schools  containing  the 
following  statement  under  the  heading  "Labor  Certificates": 

There  has  been  quite  a  measure  of  uncertainty  relative  to  the 
spirit  of  the  law  in  the  issuing  or  withholding  of  labor  certificates 
when  children  apply  for  the  same.  That  portion  of  the  statute 
which  uses  the  expression  "necessarily  employed"  is  susceptible  of 
more  than  a  single  interpretation.  The  attorney  of  the  Board  of 
Education  believes  that  "the  spirit  of  the  law  is  to  enforce  the  edu- 


CHILDREN  BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SIXTEEN     321 

cation  of  children  for  the  public  good,  excepting  where  individual 
necessity  would  make  the  enforcement  of  the  law  too  burdensome." 
The  question  of  issuing  or  withholding  a  certificate  when  appli- 
cation is  made  for  same  should  be  decided  on  the  merits  of  each  case 
and  from  information  gathered  as  to  the  status  of  the  home  life  and 
the  ability  of  the  family  to  provide,  without  serious  sacrifice,  for  the 
education  of  the  child.  The  import  of  this  interpretation  renders  it 
within  the  power  of  the  principal  to  withhold  a  certificate  should  the 
financial  conditions  of  the  family  justify  the  continuance  of  the  child 
in  the  work  of  the  school.1 

Whatever  may  have  been  intended  by  the  word  "neces- 
sarily" in  the  law,  it  is  clear  that  it  is  useless  unless  provision 
is  made  for  a  systematic  investigation  of  the  home  circum- 
stances of  each  child.  At  present,  of  course,  no  machinery 
exists  for  making  such  inquiries. 

One  further  comment  may  be  made  with  regard  to  the 
words  "necessarily  ....  employed."  Such  a  provision 
merely  excuses  from  the  benefits  of  the  compulsory  education 
law  the  children  of  especially  "necessitous"  parents.  The 
early  compulsory  laws  which  fixed  the  school-leaving  age  at 
twelve  or  fourteen  usually  made  similar  exemptions  of  children 
who  "on  account  of  poverty"  were  obliged  to  work,  and  it  was 
found  that  such  provisions  were  objectionable  in  many  ways. 
For  example,  the  children  excused  because  of  poverty  were 
the  very  ones  most  in  need  of  education.  Moreover  it  is 
impossible  for  the  law  to  define  with  a  satisfactory  degree  of 
precision  the  standard  of  poverty  or  necessity  that  is  to  entitle 
a  child  to  exemption  from  school  attendance.  As  the  old 
exemptions  for  poverty  were  dropped  for  children  below  the  age 
of  fourteen,  so  must  the  excuse  of  poverty  be  dropped  for 
children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen.  If  school  attendance 
is  to  be  made  compulsory  for  any  children,  it  must  be  made 
compulsory  for  all  children. 

1  Superintendent's  Bulletin,  February  21,  1916,  p.  50. 


322     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Another  difficulty  in  the  way  of  enforcing  the  provision  of 
the  law  requiring  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  to  be 
either  at  school  or  at  work  is  that  the  law  provides  no  way  of 
disciplining  the  unemployed  child  who  refuses  to  return  to 
school.  The  parental  school  law  was  passed  in  1899,  when  the 
compulsory  education  law  provided  only  for  children  under 
fourteen  years  of  age,  and  unfortunately  this  law  was  not 
amended  in  1907  when  the  "  four  teen-  to-sixteen "  amendment 
was  added  to  the  compulsory  law.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
the  parental  school  law  provides  for  the  establishment  of 
parental  or  truant  schools  for  the  purpose  of  affording  a  place 
of  confinement,  discipline,  instruction,  and  maintenance  for 
children  of  compulsory  school  age.1  In  defining  the  methods 
of  commitment,  however,  it  is  provided  that  the  children  are 
not  to  be  cared  for  in  this  institution  after  they  reach  the  age  of 
fourteen.  This  means  that  the  Department  of  Compulsory 
Education  has  no  machinery  for  dealing  with  the  wilful  truant 
over  fourteen,  other  than  by  bringing  him  into  court  to  receive 
a  reprimand  from  the  judge.  The  parents,  of  course,  might  be 
brought  into  the  Municipal  Court,  but  in  the  case  of  these  older 
boys  parental  control  is  weak,  even  when  the  parents  are  intelli- 
gent enough  to  co-operate  by  exercising  their  authority.  If  the 
boy  is  really  bad  or  if  the  home  is  really  degraded,  recourse  may 
be  had  to  the  juvenile  court  law  and  the  boy  may  be  treated 
as  a  delinquent  or  as  a  dependent  child  under  the  provisions  of 
that  law.  But  such  procedure  obviously  is  applicable  only  to 
extreme  cases  and  is  not  suited  to  the  thousands  of  boys  and 
girls  who  need  the  control  and  the  oversight  of  the  school  during 
these  critical  years. 

The  Department  of  Compulsory  Education  in  Chicago  has 
at  different  times  recommended  that  special  provision  be  made 
at  the  Parental  School  for  boys  between  fourteen  and  six- 

1  See  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  122,  sec.  140. 


CHILDREN  BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SIXTEEN     323 

teen.1  But  attention  must  be  called  to  the  fact  that  even  if  this 
provision  were  made,  the  real  problem  of  proper  care  for  such 
children  would  go  unsolved  until  some  method  could  be  devised 
of  systematically  tracing  all  unemployed  children  between  these 
ages. 

With  regard  to  the  fourteen-  to  sixteen-year-old  children, 
then,  it  is  as  though  the  compulsory  law  ignored  them  entirely, 
for,  although  the  law  says  that  they  must  be  in  school  unless 
"necessarily  and  lawfully  employed,"  no  inquiry  into  the  home 
circumstances  of  the  child  is  required  by  law  and  the  words 
"necessarily  ....  employed"  are  therefore  nullified  in  prac- 
tice, no  provision  is  made  for  ascertaining  whether  or  not 
children  with  work  certificates  are  "lawfully  employed,"  and 
there  is  no  place  to  which  children  who  refuse  to  return  to 
school  can  be  committed.  On  the  whole,  therefore,  it  may  be 
said  that  the  attempt  made  to  extend  the  benefits  of  the  com- 
pulsory law  to  all  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age  has  proved 
abortive,  and  the  children  are  almost  as  unprotected  as  if  the 
law  ignored  them. 

1  The  present  superintendent  of  compulsory  education  has,  for  example, 
more  than  once  called  attention  to  the  need  of  such  provision  for  children 
over  fourteen,  and  in  a  recent  report  of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education  he 
strongly  emphasizes  "the  necessity  for  better  provision  for  the  correction 
and  care  of  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age  who  are 
beyond  parental  control  and  who  prefer  idleness  to  school  attendance  or 

employment The  only  recourse  under  present  conditions  against 

a  fourteen-year-old  truant  who  has  committed  no  other  offense  than  truancy, 
is  to  charge  him  with  incorrigible  or  delinquent  conduct  and  to  ask  his  com- 
mitment to  the  John  Worthy  School  or  to  St.  Charles.  The  former  is  a 
prison  school  where  the  worst  type  of  delinquent  boys  is  sent.  St.  Charles 
has  not  sufficient  capacity  to  provide  for  urgent  delinquent  cases.  It  is 
therefore  a  question  of  consistency  for  one  state  law  to  provide  for  compul- 
sory attendance  up  to  the  age  of  sixteen  while  another  state  law — the 
parental  school  law — provides  for  truants  only  between  seven  and  fourteen 
years,  and  bars  the  truant  between  fourteen  and  sixteen." — Fifty-seventh 
Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago,  p.  138. 


324     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

The  question  remains  to  be  asked:  What  are  the  facts 
regarding  the  present  employment  of  children  between  the 
ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen  in  Chicago,  and  how  far  do 
they  support  the  demand  for  raising  the  compulsory  attend- 
ance age  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  years  for  all  children? 
Is  the  work  that  is  found  by  children  of  these  ages  suffi- 
ciently educative  and  valuable  to  justify  the  loss  of  these 
two  years  of  school,  or  are  their  wages  so  essential  to  the 
support  of  their  family  that  their  employment  must  be  per- 
mitted as  a  means  of  keeping  these  families  self-sustaining  and 
independent  ? 

Perhaps  the  most  convincing  argument  for  the  extension  of 
the  child  labor  law  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  at  present 
there  is  so  little  demand  for  the  labor  of  children  under  sixteen 
years  of  age  that  it  is  impossible  for  more  than  a  small  percent- 
age of  the  children  who  leave  school  at  the  age  of  fourteen  or 
fifteen  to  find  employment.  There  is  always  a  demand  for 
unregulated  child  labor,  but  when  the  law  prescribes,  as  the 
Illinois  law  does,  that  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen 
may  be  employed  only  under  certain  conditions,  that  they  may 
not  work  more  than  eight  hours  a  day  or  more  than  forty-eight 
hours  a  week,  that  they  may  not  work  at  night,  that  they  may 
not  operate  certain  kinds  of  machines,  then  their  labor  ceases 
to  be  profitable  to  an  employer.  Unless  he  can  exploit  the 
children  who  work  for  him,  the  employer  does  not  find  that  it 
"pays"  to  employ  them  at  all.  Firms  that  used  to  employ 
large  numbers  of  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  years  of 
age  in  the  old  laissez-faire  days  now  find  protected  child  labor 
more  trouble  than  it  is  worth.  Many  employers,  too,  do  not 
care  to  run  the  risk  of  prosecution  because  of  unintentional 
violations  of  the  child  labor  laws.  "We  don't  want  to  be 
bothered  with  the  factory  inspectors  and  the  trouble  about 
work  certificates,"  is  a  common  explanation  of  the  refusal  to 
employ  children  under  sixteen. 


CHILDREN  BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SDCTEEN     325 


When  the  law  attempts,  therefore,  to  protect  the  working 
child,  the  effect  is  much  the  same  as  if  employment  were  in  large 
measure  prohibited,  for  the  children  soon  learn  that  there  are  no 
"jobs"  to  be  found,  and  they  spend  their  newly  acquired  leisure 
fruitlessly  looking  for  work  or  idling  on  the  streets.  What  has 
happened,  therefore,  is  that  by  regulating  the  employment  of 
children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen,  the  legislature  has  virtu- 
ally prohibited  their  employment,  but  has  not  required  them  to 
go  to  school.  That  is,  the  legislature  repeated  the  mistake  it 
made  in  1893  when  it  took  children  out  of  the  factories  but  left 
them  on  the  street  instead  of  requiring  them  to  go  to  school.1 
What  is  needed  is  that  the  legislature  should  now  face  the  fact 
that  the  employment  of  children  under  sixteen  has  been  virtu- 
ally prohibited.  This  prohibition  should  then  be  made  absolute 
and  the  compulsory  attendance  law  should  be  extended  so  as 
to  require  all  children  without  any  "exemptions"  to  spend  these 
critical  and  valuable  years  in  school. 

Testimony  in  support  of  the  fact  that  there  are  very  few 
occupations  open  to  children  under  sixteen  is  not  lacking.  In 
the  first  place  census  statistics  show  a  smaller  number  of  children 
employed  in  1910  than  in  1900  in  spite  of  the  increase  in  child 
population.  Take,  for  example,  the  census  statistics  relating 

TABLE  XXXII 

AVERAGE  NUMBER  OF  WAGE-EARNERS  IN 
ILLINOIS* 


Total 

Number 
under  16 

Percentage 
under  16 

IQOQ.  . 

4.6^,764. 

6,017 

I    c 

I8OO.  . 

H2.87I 

0,041 

3O 

*Estimated  on  basis  of  actual  number  reported  for  a 
single  representative  day.  Thirteenth  Census  of  United 
States,  1910,  Abstract,  with  supplement  for  Illinois,  p.  709. 

1  See  chap,  v,  "  Parallel  Development  of  the  Illinois  Child  Labor  and 
Compulsory  Education  Laws." 


326     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


to  the  employment  of  children  in  manufacturing  industries. 
The  statistics  presented  relate  to  manufacturing  industries  only, 
but  similar  data  are  available  for  other  occupations.  Thus, 
the  data  given  in  Table  XXXIII  which  are  taken  from  the  last 
census  of  occupations  show  for  Chicago  a  reduction  in  the  num- 
ber of  children  in  "all  occupations."  These  statistics  merely 
confirm  the  testimony  given  by  the  census  of  manufactures. 
The  total  number  of  children  employed  in  Chicago  fell  from 
27,527  to  20,490  and  constituted  2.1  per  cent  of  all  persons 
employed  in  the  latter  year  instead  of  3.9  per  cent  in  the 
earlier  year.  It  should  be  noted,  moreover,  that  all  children 
claiming  to  be  wage-earners  were  included  in  the  occupational 
census,  whether  they  were  at  work  or  not  at  the  time  the 
census  was  taken. 

TABLE  XXXIII 

TOTAL  NUMBER,  AND  NUMBER  AND  PERCENT- 
AGE OF  CHILDREN  UNDER  SIXTEEN  EM- 
PLOYED IN  GAINFUL  OCCUPATIONS  IN 
CHICAGO,  1900  AND  1910* 


Total 

Number 
under  16 

Percentage 
under  16 

IOIO.  . 

996,^89 

20,490 

2.  I 

IQOO.  . 

7CX.382 

27,527 

3-9 

^Thirteenth     Census,     "Occupations,"     pp.     544-46; 
Twelfth  Census,  "Occupations,"  pp.  516-21. 

The  result  of  there  being  so  few  openings  for  children  and  of 
allowing  so  many  of  them  to  leave  school  to  search  for  employ- 
ment each  year  is  that  a  very  considerable  proportion  of  the 
children  who  get  their  employment  certificates  are  idle  during 
the  greater  part  of  the  time.  Some  statistics  showing  the 
number  of  months  that  these  children  are  out  of  work  are  avail- 
able in  the  records  of  the  Employment  Supervision  Bureau.1 

1  See  ante,  p.  230,  note,  and  Appendix  VII  for  an  account  of  the  work 
of  this  bureau. 


CHILDREN  BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SIXTEEN     327 

An  examination  of  the  records  selected  at  random  of  279  boys 
between  fourteen  and  sixteen,  who  had  left  school  to  go  to  work 
two  years  earlier  and  whose  work  records  were  complete, 
showed  that  10  per  cent  had  not  been  able  to  find  any  work,  that 
44  per  cent  had  worked  less  than  half  of  the  time  since  leaving 
school,  and  that  56  per  cent  had  worked  less  than  two-thirds  of 
the  time,  and  that  only  10  per  cent  had  been  employed  as  much 
as  nine-tenths  of  the  time  since  they  had  left  school  to  go  to 
work.1 

Other  statistics  are  available  for  another  group  of  135 
children,  all  of  whom  had  been  out  of  school  for  periods  of  from 

1  The  last  report  of  the  Chicago  school  census  taken  by  the  Department 
of  Compulsory  Education  contains  the  following  statistics  relating  to 
children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  (School  Census,  1914,  p.  15): 

SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  EMPLOYMENT  OF  CHICAGO  CHILDREN 
BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SIXTEEN  YEARS  OF  AGE 

Attending  public  or  private  schools 73,°7O 

"Out  of  school  and  out  of  work  for  thirty  consecutive  days"..          942 

"Working" 14,854 

Total  population  between  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen  . . .      88,866 

This  table  is  somewhat  difficult  to  understand  because  it  is  not  clear 
whether  or  not  the  942  children  who  are  said  to  be  neither  at  school  nor  at 
work  for  thirty  days  are  children  with  employment  certificates  or  children 
supposed  to  be  attending  school  but  absent  from  school.  Nor  is  it  clear 
whether  the  children  classified  as  "working"  were  actually  employed  or 
merely  reported  as  employed  because  they  had  been  given  working  papers 
and  were  out  seeking  work.  In  any  event,  although  to  those  who  have  ex- 
perience in  the  work  of  finding  "jobs"  for  children  it  seems  almost  incredible 
that  the  number  of  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  who  were  neither 
at  school  nor  at  work  was  only  942,  yet  attention  may  be  called  to  the  fact 
that  if  this  be  the  correct  number,  it  must  be  accepted  with  the  understand- 
ing that  it  gives  only  a  flashlight  view  of  the  situation.  One  thousand 
children  may  be  out  of  work  one  month  and  another  thousand  children 
out  of  work  another  month,  and  so  on.  So  that  during  the  year  several 
thousands  of  children  would  have  had  the  demoralizing  experiences  of 
idleness.  Since  the  writing  of  this  chapter  a  very  exceptional  situation 
with  regard  to  the  employment  of  children  has  developed.  See  note  at  end 
of  chapter. 


328     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

one  to  two  years.1  The  records  of  these  children  showed  that 
1 8  per  cent  of  them  had  never  had  any  work  at  all,  and  although 
exempt  from  school  attendance  on  the  ground  that  they  were 
"lawfully  employed,"  they  had  merely  been  looking  for  work  or 
idling  for  a  period  of  not  less  than  twelve  months;  6  per  cent 
had  worked  for  periods  varying  from  a  few  days  to  one  month; 
10  per  cent  more  had  had  work  for  periods  varying  from  four  to 
eight  weeks,  and  7  per  cent  more  for  periods  varying  from  eight 
to  twelve  weeks.  In  addition,  therefore,  to  the  18  per  cent 
who  had  been  idle  for  at  least  twelve  months,  another  23  per 
cent  had  been  idle  for  at  least  nine  months,  and  24  per  cent  more 
worked  three  months  and  less  than  six  months.  Summarizing 
these  percentages,  65  per  cent  of  the  children  had  been  idle  at 
least  six  months,  one-half  or  more  than  one-half  of  the  time 
that  they  had  been  out  of  school. 

Not  only  are  many  of  these  children  idle  the  greater  part 
of  the  time,  but  when  they  do  find  work,  it  is  largely  in  unedu- 
cative,  undisciplinary,  "blind-alley"  occupations  that  are  likely 
to  lead  to  nothing  but  a  "dead  end"  and  unemployment  in  the 
future.  The  way  to  the  skilled  trades  which  is  through  union 
regulations  is  almost  wholly  closed  to  children  under  sixteen. 
The  skilled  workman,  trade-unionist  or  not,  is  always  opposed 
to  child  labor.  With  reference  to  this  point,  the  director  of 
the  Employment  Supervision  Bureau  in  testifying  at  the  hear- 
ing of  the  subcommittee  of  the  Illinois  House  of  Representatives 
in  1915  on  the  need  of  a  new  child  labor  bill  said: 

The  trades  do  not  employ  children  under  sixteen.  The  employers 
in  the  more  skilled  lines  of  work  refuse  to  take  children  because  they 
have  not  had  enough  training,  they  are  too  immature,  they  are  too 
childish  and  irresponsible,  and  employers  find  that  it  is  an  economic 
waste  to  bother  with  them.  So  we  find  these  children  going  into  the 

1  The  records  of  these  children  were  transcribed  by  Miss  Chamberlain, 
of  the  tlniversity  of  Chicago.  The  cases  were  selected  at  random  from  the 
records  that  gave  the  complete  employment  history  of  children  who  had 
had  their  working  papers  for  at  least  one  year. 


CHILDREN  BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SIXTEEN     329 

more  unskilled  work.  The  majority  go  into  the  box  factories  where 
they  "turn  in,"  "cover,"  "bind,"  and  "tie";  into  the  candy  factories 
where  they  wrap  and  pack  candy;  and  into  the  low-grade  tailor  shops 
where  the  majority  pull  bastings  and  brush  clothes,  but  few  do  any 
form  of  needle- work.  They  go  into  the  department  stores  where 
they  are  employed  as  cash  girls,  as  inspectors,  as  stock  boys,  and 
messengers;  a  few  enter  the  boot  and  shoe  factories  where  they  tie 
and  cut  threads,  polish  and  clean  shoes,  tag  and  lace  and  assemble 
parts  of  shoes;  they  go  into  the  engraving  shops  where  they  feed 
a  little  hand  machine;  and  into  the  moulding  and  picture-frame 
factories  where  they  wrap  and  carry  moulding.  A  few  are  employed 
in  the  knitting  mills  where  they  cut  threads,  sort,  count,  tie,  and 
label;  a  few  work  in  the  laundries  where  they  shake  and  mark 
clothes;  a  few  are  employed  in  the  book  binderies  where  they  fold, 
or  feed  a  wire  stitching  machine.  Many  are  employed  in  the  novelty 
shops  where  they  do  such  mechanical  processes  as  counting  and  sort- 
ing, tying  tags,  etc.;  a  few  are  employed  in  the  bakeries  where  they 
pack  and  label;  a  few  are  employed  in  the  press-clipping  bureaus  where 
they  clip  items  from  the  newspapers;  a  great  many  go  into  the  soap 
factories  where  they  wrap  soap,  and  into  various  factories  where  they 
do  such  unskilled  work  as  labeling;  and  a  few  are  employed  in  offices. 
The  child  is  not  learning  a  trade  or  doing  anything  by  which  he 
may  earn  his  living  later  in  life.  One  might  readily  think  that  the 
cash  girls  in  a  department  store  in  a  few  years  become  sales  girls,  but 
the  large  majority  when  they  are  too  old  for  children's  tasks,  seek 
employment  in  low-grade  factories  because  they  are  unfitted  for  any 
special  line  of  work.1 

It  seems  to  be  clear  then  that  the  years  between  fourteen 
and  sixteen  are  most  wastefully  spent  by  the  children  who  are 
given  employment  certificates  and  leave  school  to  go  to  work, 
or,  more  frequently,  to  drift  idly  about  the  streets  during  this 
impressionable  period  of  adolescence. 

It  may  be  claimed,  of  course,  that  in  many  cases  the  parents 
need  the  children's  earnings,  but  it  has  already  been  shown  that 

1  Report  of  the  Illinois  Child  Labor  Committee:  Why  Illinois  Wants 
a  New  Child  Labor  Law:  A  Digest  of  What  the  Sub-Committee  Found  (1915). 


330     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

small  earnings  or  no  earnings  at  all  are  the  result.  Under  the 
present  system  the  poorest  people  are  sorely  tempted  to  make 
use  of  the  freedom  that  the  law  gives  them  to  send  their  children 
out  to  look  for  work,  without  realizing  that  the  boy  or  girl  for 
whom  such  heavy  sacrifices  have  already  been  made  will  be 
spending  the  greater  part  of  two  years  in  demoralizing  idleness 
for  the  sake  of  an  occasional  small  wage  or  none  at  all.  The 
ignorant  and  discouraged  parent,  weary  of  the  desperate  struggle 
with  poverty,  may  be  excused  for  wanting  some  help  from  the 
children  he  is  trying  to  support,  but  the  law  should  protect 
both  child  and  parents  by  making  it  impossible  for  the  child's 
future  to  be  jeopardized  in  a  fruitless  attempt  to  meet  the 
family  necessities.  "She  might  as  well  wear  her  shoes  out 
going  to  work  as  going  to  school,"  said  an  overburdened  mother 
who  was  insisting  on  putting  an  undeveloped  child  to  work. 
"I've  fed  her  for  fourteen  years  and  now  that  the  law  says  she 
can  help  feed  me  and  the  other  children,  she's  got  to  do  it,"  was 
the  bitter  reply  of  an  unemployed  father  to  a  request  that  his 
little  girl  might  be  allowed  to  stay  in  school  until  she  was  better 
fitted  for  work.  "Do  please  find  me  a  job,  missus,"  was  the 
plaintive  request  of  a  small  boy  of  fourteen  at  the  door  of  a 
friendly  settlement.  "My  father  says  I  can't  come  home  if  I 
don't  get  a  job.  He  won't  feed  a  bum,  he  says,  'No  work,  no 
eats.'  '  Such  ignorant  or  desperate  parents  need  to  be  pro- 
tected against  themselves.  They  gain  nothing  in  the  end  by 
being  allowed  to  take  their  children  out  of  school  and  see  them 
grow  into  worthless  men  and  women.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  in  too  many  homes,  the  pressure  of  poverty  is  so  great  that 
the  children,  if  at  work,  would  be,  in  the  terms  of  the  statute 
"necessarily  ....  employed."  But  the  "necessity"  of  the 
work  must  be  estimated  not  by  the  poverty  in  the  home,  but 
in  terms  of  its  educative  value  from  the  point  of  view  of  their 
later  industrial  life  and  their  fitness  for  citizenship.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  experiences  into  which  these  children  are 


CHILDREN  BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SDCTEEN     331 

led  in  securing  their  jobs,  often  by  overstating  their  age,  gener- 
ally in  a  purely  casual  and  accidental  manner,  in  leaving  job 
after  job  or  being  laid  off,  in  loafing  between  jobs,  in  over- 
strain, in  being  victimized  by  violations  of  the  child  labor  law, 
and  at  best,  in  work  which  is  monotonous,  irregular,  or  hi  itself 
demoralizing,  are  such  as  tend  hi  no  way  toward  their  proper 
physical  and  mental  development. 

On  the  other  hand,  nothing  is  finer  than  the  eagerness  of 
these  poor  children  to  share  in  the  family  responsibility.  So 
long  as  the  law  gives  them  any  choice  in  the  matter,  the  children 
who  are  most  ambitious  and  industrious  are  the  ones  who  will 
feel  it  their  duty  to  leave  school  if  it  means  lightening  in  the 
smallest  degree  the  family  burden.  Social  workers  who  come 
in  close  contact  with  the  family  problems  of  the  poor  find  in- 
numerable examples  of  this  desire  on  the  part  of  very  young  chil- 
dren to  assume  some  part  of  the  family  burdens.  Thus  a  little 
boy  from  an  immigrant  Italian  family  who  asked  for  help  in 
finding  work  reported  that  his  father  was  dead  and  his  mother 
could  not  leave  the  three  small  children  to  go  to  work,  and 
he  looked  upon  the  finding  of  a  "job"  as  an  imperative  duty. 
When  he  was  told  that  he  was  too  small  and  undersized  to  go 
to  work,  he  burst  into  tears,  asking,  "Who's  going  to  support 
the  family  if  I  can't  work?"  A  similar  situation  was  that 
of  a  small  Hungarian  boy  who  was  found  to  be  working  under 
age.  When  he  was  told  that  his  working  papers  would  have  to 
be  canceled  he,  too,  wept  bitterly  and  asked  over  and  over 
again,  "Who'll  pay  the  rent?  Who'll  take  care  of  the  chil- 
dren?" Fortunately  in  both  of  these  cases  the  families  were 
found  to  be  eligible  for  "widows'  pensions." 

In  another  family,  Elizabeth,  who  was  the  oldest  of  eight 
children,  was  very  small  and  had  reached  only  the  sixth  grade 
when  she  attained  her  fourteenth  birthday.  Her  father  was  an 
invalid,  and  she  at  once  looked  upon  herself  as  the  head  of  the 
family  and  went  immediately  in  search  of  a  "job."  With  the 


332     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

assistance  of  a  charitable  agency,  work  was  found  in  an  office 
where  she  was  to  help  with  the  riling,  but  when  it  was  discovered 
that  she  was  too  small  to  reach  the  files,  the  employer  was  about 
to  discharge  her.  Touched  by  her  eagerness  in  asking  if  he 
had  not  some  other  work  that  she  could  do  till  she  grew  taller, 
because  she  had  a  sick  father  and  seven  little  brothers  and 
sisters  to  take  care  of,  the  employer  found  a  place  for  her  in 
another  department. 

There  is  no  desire  to  minimize  the  value  to  the  child  of  the 
sense  of  responsibility  and  family  devotion,  but  this  should  not 
become  a  heavy  burden  while  the  child  is  too  immature  to  carry 
it.  As  the  child  is  prevented  from  allowing  his  affection  for 
his  family  to  drive  him  into  wage-earning  at  the  age  of  twelve, 
so  he  can  be  protected  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  when  he  is  like- 
wise too  young  to  assume  the  responsibilities  of  family  main- 
tenance. 

Leaving  the  question  of  "necessitous"  children,  attention 
must  be  called  to  the  cases  in  which  children  leave  school  when 
their  earnings  are  not  needed  in  the  home.  Many  parents  in 
comfortable  circumstances  who,  if  required  by  law  to  do  so, 
could  keep  the  child  in  school  until  sixteen  without  any  hard- 
ship or  deprivation  in  the  home,  are  so  careless  and  indifferent 
or  so  shortsighted  and  unintelligent  that  they  take  the  child 
out  of  school  the  moment  the  law  allows  them  to  do  so.  Such 
parents  fail  to  realize  the  value  to  the  child  of  the  two  additional 
years  in  school  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  they 
do  not  understand  the  unprofitable  nature  of  the  occupations 
open  to  their  children. 

The  director  of  the  Employment  Supervision  Bureau  on  the 
basis  of  a  careful  study  of  the  records  of  children  who  had  applied 
for  work  and  whose  home  circumstances  had  been  investigated, 
estimated  that,  in  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  cases,  the 
families  did  not  need  the  help  of  the  children  who  were  never- 
theless obliged  to  leave  school  on  the  very  earliest  day  the  law 


CHILDREN  BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SIXTEEN     333 

allowed.  In  her  testimony  before  the  legislative  committee  she 
said  that  her  records  showed  that  the  children 

are  more  often  taken  out  of  school  by  parents  who  wish  to  accumu- 
late property,  or  who  sacrifice  the  education  of  the  child  in  order  that 
they  may  pay  the  monthly  instalment  on  a  piano  or  some  other 
luxury.  In  one  neighborhood  in  Chicago  where  the  people  are 
thrifty  and  nearly  all  own  their  homes,  the  children  are  taken  out  of 
school  on  the  very  day  they  reach  fourteen.  The  little  girls  go  into 
the  tailor  shops  where  they  earn  as  little  as  $i  a  week  and  the  majority 
do  not  earn  more  than  $3  or  $3 . 50  a  week.  There  are  many  children 
who  leave  school  only  because  they  are  fourteen  and  the  law  gives 
them  that  liberty.  There  are  many  who  leave  because  the  parents 
are  ignorant  of  industrial  conditions;  they  think  a  child  may  learn 
a  trade  at  fourteen,  as  formerly,  but  after  a  few  months  or  a  year 
these  children  regret  that  they  have  left  school  because  they  find  that 
industry  does  not  offer  the  thing  they  are  seeking.  But  few  children 
will  return  to  school  after  they  have  once  secured  their  working 
permits.  There  are  children  who  leave  school  because  they  do  not 
like  school,  but  the  schools  are  now  providing  industrial  work  which 
appeals  to  those  who  are  not  academically  inclined  and  which  will 
tend  to  keep  more  children  in  school.1 

The  following  cases  illustrate  the  waste  that  is  occasioned 
by  the  "exemption"  from  school  attendance  granted  to  children 
who  wish  to  leave  school  to  seek  employment  between  the  ages 
of  fourteen  and  sixteen. 

Anna  X ,  a  clever  little  Bohemian  girl,  left  school  on 

her  fourteenth  birthday  although  it  fell  on  May  17,  and  she 
ought  at  least  to  have  finished  the  school  year.  Her  father  and 
her  older  sister  had  regular  work  at  good  wages,  and  there  were 
no  younger  children.  She  had  done  unusually  well  in  school, 
but  the  father  would  not  listen  to  any  argument  that  she  should 
be  allowed  to  remain.  There  was  no  pretext  that  her  earnings 
were  needed,  but  the  father  said  the  mother  was  away  on  a  visit 

1  Report  of  the  Illinois  Child  Labor  Committee:  Why  Illinois  Wants  a 
New  Child  Labor  Law:  A  Digest  of  What  the  Sub-Committee  Found,  p.  5. 


334     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

and  the  little  girl  could  do  the  housework.  She  was  an  excep- 
tionally nice  child  and  had  finished  the  fifth  grade,  although 
she  had  been  in  this  country  only  four  years,  and  she  was  eager 
to  stay  on  in  school. 

Louise  Y ,  another  little  Bohemian  girl,  left  the  eighth 

grade  on  April  30,  the  day  of  her  fourteenth  birthday,  and  got 
a  position  in  a  local  store  at  $2 . 50  a  week.  The  family  were  in 
comfortable  circumstances,  and  her  earnings  were  not  needed 
in  the  home.  The  father  and  two  older  children  had  good  jobs, 
and  there  was  only  one  younger  child.  Her  work  at  the  store 
lasted  only  a  few  weeks,  and  she  then  applied  for  assistance  in 
finding  other  work.  An  effort  was  made  to  persuade  her  to 
return  to  school,  but  she  could  not  be  persuaded  and  said 
if  she  could  not  find  a  job  she  would  just  stay  at  home, 
although  she  had  admitted  that  her  help  was  not  needed  in 
the  house. 

In  some  cases,  the  parents  are  dead,  and  the  older  brothers 
and  sisters  demand  the  child's  employment.  Such  was  the 

case  with  Anna  G ,  a  German-Polish  girl  whose  parents 

were  dead,  whose  brothers  earn  $33  a  week  and  had  only  Anna 
and  one  younger  child  to  support.  They  thought,  however,  that 
since  Anna  might  lawfully  work,  she  should  do  so,  and  by  so 
much  relieve  them  of  her  support. 

Sometimes  the  parents  insist  on  the  child's  leaving  school 
because  of  discouragement  at  the  child's  failure  to  progress  in 

his  school  work.  In  the  case  of  an  Italian  boy,  Tony  Z , 

his  father  kept  him  in  school  until  he  was  fifteen  and  then  got 
tired  of  sending  him  to  school  because  he  "was  not  learning 
anything."  On  investigation  it  was  found  that  although  Tony 
was  nominally  in  the  fifth  grade,  he  could  neither  read  nor 
write.  The  principal  said  that  he  had  promoted  him  from  time 
to  time  "to  encourage  him,"  but  it  appeared  that  he  had  never 
sent  the  boy  to  the  Child-Study  Department.  When  taken 
there  by  the  social  worker  who  had  become  interested  in  his 


CHILDREN  BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SIXTEEN    335 

behalf,  he  was  found  to  be  very  subnormal  and  a  fit  subject  for 
such  a  subnormal  room  as  he  could  have  attended  in  a  neigh- 
boring school  if  he  had  been  sent  earlier  to  the  department  for 
examination.  The  father  had,  however,  grown  too  discouraged 
to  listen  to  any  advice  and  insisted  on  taking  the  child  out  of 
school  since  the  law  permitted  him  to  do  so. 

It  is  sometimes  possible  to  return  to  school  a  child  who  has 
not  finished  the  eighth  grade  if  his  earnings  do  not  appear  to  be 
needed  in  the  home,  but  little  effort  seems  to  be  made  at  present 
to  return  the  child  who  has  graduated.  In  many  cases  these 
children  are  eager  to  go  on  to  the  high  school  and  realize,  as  their 
parents  do  not,  that  there  is  little  chance  of  their  finding  work 
before  they  are  sixteen  and  every  chance  of  their  spending  the 
intervening  two  years  wastefully  and  of  not  being  able  to  get 
a  good  position  when  they  reach  the  age  of  sixteen.  These 
children  do  the  same  work  as  those  who  have  not  graduated, 
and  have  the  same  difficulty  in  finding  work. 

Such  is  the  case  of  Ethel  A ,  an  American  child  with 

American  parents,  the  father  a  steamfitter  earning  $35  a  week. 
In  this  case  the  child's  parents  refused  to  allow  her  to  go  to 
high  school  although  she  was  very  eager  to  do  so.  She  applied 
to  the  Employment  Supervision  Bureau  for  assistance  in  finding 
work  six  months  after  she  left  school.  An  agent  of  the  bureau 
called  at  the  home  and  endeavored  to  persuade  the  mother  to 
allow  the  girl  to  take  a  business  course  in  a  high  school,  and 
called  the  mother's  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  girl  had  had 
only  one  week's  work  during  the  six  months  since  she  had  been 
out  of  school.  The  mother  wavered,  but  only  temporarily, 
and  refused  finally  and  peremptorily  to  allow  the  child  to  go 
to  school. 

Another  neat,  nice-looking  little  girl  who  had  graduated  from 

the  eighth  grade  was  Gertrude  B .  She  had  not  yet 

had  a  position  and  the  Employment  Supervision  Bureau 
endeavored  to  find  some  office  work  for  her.  When  she  was 


336     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

first  interviewed  she  was  told  that  someone  would  see  her 
mother  and  try  to  get  her  returned  to  school,  but  she  said, 
"  My  teacher  was  over  to  see  my  mother  and  just  talked  her  head 
off,  but  it  didn't  change  my  mother's  mind  one  bit."  The  girl 
looked  so  young  that  up  to  the  time  of  the  report  it  had  not 
been  possible  to  find  work  for  her;  but  although  her  father  was 
willing,  her  mother  firmly  refused  to  allow  her  to  return  to  school. 

Sometimes  the  fact  that  the  child  was  "graduated"  is  held 
by  the  parents  to  entitle  him  to  a  work  certificate,  even  if  he 
is  not  fourteen,  and  if  the  certificate  cannot  be  obtained,  to 
justify  his  going  to  work  without  one.  Such  was  the  case  of 

Max  C ,  who  was  born  March  25,  1901,  and  graduated 

from  the  eighth  grade  in  June,  1914.  The  family  was  in  very 
comfortable  circumstances.  The  father  was  a  machine  opera- 
tor; a  brother,  twenty-one,  was  a  moving-picture  operator,  and 
an  older  sister  worked  in  an  office.  While  the  boy  was  still  in 
school  and  before  he  was  fourteen,  he  worked  after  school 
hours  and  on  Saturdays  for  a  tailor,  running  errands,  and  earned 
$3  a  week.  He  graduated  from  the  eighth  grade  three  months 
after  his  thirteenth  birthday,  but  did  not  go  to  high  school 
because  he  did  not  like  school,  and  he  wanted  to  work.  He  was 
not  old  enough  to  get  a  certificate,  and  therefore  worked  with- 
out one  in  a  coat  shop  where  he  earned  $5  a  week.  Three 
months  later  he  got  a  job  with  a  vaudeville  company,  singing, 
and  he  earned  $23 . 50  a  week.  He  had  traveled  with  this  com- 
pany for  six  months  before  he  was  fourteen  years  of  age.  After 
nine  months  he  lost  his  voice  and  had  to  give  up  his  position, 
and  is  now  drifting  about. 

In  such  cases  as  this,  the  law  should  protect  the  boy  against 
himself  and  his  own  foolish  boyish  impulses.  In  a  very  con- 
siderable number  of  cases,  the  parents  are  anxious  to  keep  the 
boy  in  school,  but  the  boy  prefers  "knocking  about"  trying 
different  jobs  and  loafing  between  jobs.  Such  boys  think  of 
leaving  school  only  because  the  law  permits  them  to  do  so. 


CHILDREN  BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SIXTEEN    337 

For  example,  there  is  the  case  of  Fred  D ,  a  bright 

Italian  boy,  whose  father  earned  good  wages  and  was  anxious 
to  have  his  boy  stay  in  school.  He  was  in  the  first  year  in  high 
school  when  his  fourteenth  birthday  came,  although  he  was  six 
years  old  when  he  came  to  this  country.  But  he  was  "tired  of 
school,"  and  although  he  had  no  "job"  in  sight  he  left  school. 
His  father  said  the  law  helped  him  to  keep  his  child  in  school 
until  he  was  fourteen,  but  after  that  he  was  left  helpless, 
although  he  wanted  his  boy  to  be  better  trained  and  educated 
than  he  had  been. 

A  similar  case  is  that  of  Willard  M .  He  came  from 

a  good  home,  did  well  in  school  and  could  perfectly  well  have 
gone  through  high  school,  but  he  had  just  "got  tired  of  school" 
and  decided  to  go  to  work.  His  parents  got  him  a  job  in  a  rail- 
road office  and  he  is  not  doing  badly.  But  he  will  surely  feel 
later  the  lack  of  the  further  education  he  might  have  had. 

Thus  at  present  the  children  who  could  perfectly  well  afford 
to  stay  in  school  are  now  leaving  on  the  slightest  pretext 
because  they  know  that  the  law  permits  it.  Such  children  and 
their  parents  need  the  protection  of  a  more  adequate  compul- 
sory school  law,  and  the  state  needs  the  means  of  thus  raising 
the  intelligence  of  its  future  citizens. 

Sometimes  it  is  a  girl  who  refuses  to  submit  longer  to  the 
discipline  of  the  schoolroom.  Three  girls  in  the  eighth  grade 
who  sat  together  and  were  unruly  were  told  by  the  principal 
that  unless  they  studied  more  they  would  be  unable  to  graduate 
at  the  end  of  the  year.  They  forthwith  demanded  their  work- 
ing papers  and  left.  Fortunately,  the  vocational  supervisor 
to  whom  the  principal  sent  them  was  able  to  show  them  how 
foolish  they  were  and  they  returned  to  school. 

The  case  of  Delia  Y is  a  very  good  example  of  a  child 

who  did  not  need  to  leave  school.  Her  family  was  in  very 
comfortable  circumstances,  her  relationship  to  the  school  was 
pleasant,  and  she  merely  left  because  the  law  allowed  her 


338     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

to  do  so.  Delia  left  school  two  weeks  after  her  fourteenth 
birthday,  although  she  was  in  the  eighth  grade,  and  the  prin- 
cipal reported  that  she  was  doing  good  work  and  that  it  was 
a  misfortune  that  she  should  be  allowed  to  leave  school  before 
her  graduation.  The  family  was  not  in  need  of  her  earnings, 
for  the  father  and  an  older  brother  and  sister  were  working. 
The  mother  said  that  she  had  tried  to  keep  Delia  in  school,  but 
the  girl  had  been  offered  a  position  at  a  near-by  dry-goods  store, 
had  insisted  on  leaving  school,  and  had  gone  to  work  without 
a  certificate.  Within  a  few  days  the  manager  of  the  store  had 
discovered  that  the  girl  had  no  certificate,  had  reprimanded  the 
department  manager  for  taking  her  on,  and  discharged  her. 
A  visitor  from  the  Employment  Supervision  Bureau  where  she 
had  applied  for  help  visited  the  home,  and  the  mother  said  that 
she  could  not  possibly  get  the  girl  to  go  back  to  school,  and  that 
if  she  did  not  get  a  certificate  and  go  to  work,  she  would  simply 
be  on  the  street.  Another  attempt  was  made  to  persuade  the 
child  to  return  to  school,  but  it  was  useless,  and  the  certificate 
was  finally  issued. 

Much  is  said  about  the  fact  that  children  get  tired  of  school, 
as  though  the  school  had  little  to  offer  them  and  their  continued 
enforced  attendance  were  perhaps  of  slight  importance.  The 
school  is  of  course  sometimes  at  fault  here,  since  an  occasional 
teacher  is  guilty  of  thinking  that  a  troublesome  child  is  learning 
very  litttle  and  might  just  as  well  leave  school  as  remain  to  be 
a  nuisance  to  the  teachers.  Moreover,  it  is  at  least  open  to 
question  whether  or  not  the  schools  are  doing  all  they  might 
do  to  counteract  the  prevalent  assumption  that  the  fourteenth 
birthday  means  the  end  of  school,  and  whether  the  schools  are 
as  yet  doing  their  part  in  educating  children  not  to  think  of 
fourteen  as  an  age  of  possible  withdrawal  from  school. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss,  if  we  were  able  to  do  so,  the 
phenomenon  of  adolescence,  but  the  importance  that  has  been 
assigned  to  the  fact  that  the  boy  or  the  girl  wearies  of  the  sorely 


CHILDREN  BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SIXTEEN    339 

needed  discipline  of  the  school  seems  at  times  to  be  given 
exaggerated  emphasis.  The  schools  obviously  are  not  beyond 
the  possibility  of  improvement,  but  with  all  their  weaknesses 
there  is  certainly  no  other  agency  that  can  so  well  serve  these 
children  at  the  time  when  their  minds  are  most  eager  and  awake. 
It  is  surely  a  fatal  error  that  they  should  be  allowed  to  slip 
away  from  the  beneficial  and  illuminating  influences  of  the  one 
educational  agency  that  can  reach  them,  only  to  be  thrown 
without  supervision  into  uneducative  work  or  into  the  life  of  the 
streets. 

The  present  law  requires  that  children  between  fourteen 
and  sixteen  must  be  either  at  school  or  at  work.  There  are, 
it  has  been  pointed  out,  many  reasons  why  the  law  should  be 
changed  and  no  children  allowed  to  leave  school  to  go  to  work 
before  the  age  of  sixteen.  But  whatever  the  age  at  which  a 
child  is  granted  an  employment  certificate,  no  such  certificate 
should  be  issued  until  employment  has  actually  been  found  for 
him.  That  is,  no  employment  certificate  should  be  issued 
unless  the  child  has  a  definite  promise  of  a  job,  such  as  a  signed 
statement  by  an  employer  that  he  is  ready  to  employ  the  child 
on  a  certain  day.  The  recent  report  of  the  Children's  Bureau 
on  the  Connecticut  employment  certificate  system  is  emphatic 
upon  this  point  and  says  that  "if  an  employment  certificate  is 
to  be  in  reality  what  its  name  implies  and  not  merely  a  permit 
to  leave  school  for  any  purpose  whatever,"  then  it  must  not 
be  granted  unless  the  authorities  have  knowledge  that  the  cer- 
tificate is  required  for  purposes  of  employment.  "On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  child  has  no  position  promised  this  requirement 
prevents  him,"  the  report  of  the  Bureau  points  out,  "from 
getting  out  of  school  merely  to  roam  the  streets."1 

Again,  whatever  the  age  at  which  an  employment  certificate 
is  issued,  it  is  essential  that  for  the  first  two  years  after  the  child 
leaves  school  to  make  the  difficult  transition  into  his  working 

1  Employment  Certificate  System  in  Connecticut,  p.  39. 


340     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

life  the  school  should  continue  to  have  supervision  over  him. 
That  is,  although  attendance  at  school  may  cease  to  be  compul- 
sory provided  the  child  is  legally  at  work,  school  attendance 
should  be  required  if  he  is  out  of  work.  The  state  should 
take  no  chances  with  the  demoralizing  results  of  idleness.  The 
boy  or  the  girl  who  does  not  work  should  not  be  allowed  to 
"loaf"  but  should  be  required  immediately  to  return  to  school. 
In  order  to  know  whether  or  not  children  are  at  work,  employ- 
ers of  juvenile  labor  should  be  required  to  send  notice  when  a 
juvenile  worker  leaves  his  employment.  There  are,  of  course, 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  enforcing  such  laws.  Fortunately, 
some  states  have  already  made  experiments  with  the  sending 
of  such  notices  and  there  is  available  some  testimony  with 
regard  to  the  best  methods  of  carrying  out  such  a  plan.  The 
Children's  Bureau,  for  example,  offers  much  valuable  comment 
on  the  use  of  termination  notices  in  Connecticut.  To  quote 
again  from  this  valuable  study  of  the  Connecticut  system: 

"The  provision  that  unemployed  children  must  go  back  to 
school  is  the  most  difficult  part  of  the  law  to  enforce.  In  the  first 
place  it  is  entirely  dependent  upon  the  sending  in  by  employers 
of  termination  notices.  If  the  employer  fails  to  send  this  notice 
the  child  may  be  either  unemployed  and  not  in  school  or  illegally 
employed  for  months  unless  he  is  accidentally  discovered 

"A  second  reason  for  the  difficulty  in  getting  unemployed 
children  back  to  school  is  that  no  provision  is  made  in  the  schools 
for  profitably  utilizing  their  time.  In  some  places  these  children 
are  put  in  ungraded  classes,  but  as  they  have  already  passed  the 
educational  test  for  a  certificate  this  provision  does  not  by  any 
means  fill  their  needs.  Where  in  the  absence  of  ungraded 
classes  they  are  put  back  into  the  regular  grades  their  condition 
is  even  more  unsatisfactory,  for  they  find  themselves  in  a  lower 
grade  than  they  would  have  been  in  if  they  had  remained  in 
school,  and  at  the  same  time  in  the  company  of  children  who 
are  in  many  ways  less  mature  than  themselves 


CHILDREN  BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SIXTEEN    341 

"Recognizing  the  lack  of  opportunity  in  the  schools  and 
the  lack  of  welcome  there,  the  agents  of  the  State  board  of  edu- 
cation, instead  of  attempting  to  send  unemployed  children  back 
to  school,  often  attempt  to  find  new  positions  for  them." 

Before  the  return  of  unemployed  children  to  school  can  be 
systematically  enforced,  special  rooms  or  schools  must  be  pro- 
vided for  them.  Otherwise  they  will,  of  course,  upset  the  school 
routine.  Moreover,  as  the  investigators  of  the  Children's 
Bureau  point  out,  "  The  ordinary  schools  ....  are  not  adapted 
either  to  hold  the  interest  of  children  who  have  been  at  work 
but  are  temporarily  unemployed  or  to  give  them  the  kind  of 
instruction  which  they  need." 

A  satisfactory  program  for  the  care  of  children  who  have 
just  completed  the  period  of  full  time  compulsory  attendance 
should  require  a  further  period  of  compulsory  attendance 
during  a  few  hours  each  week  at  continuation  schools  provided 
to  meet  the  special  needs  of  working  children.  This  is  obviously 
not  the  place  for  a  detailed  discussion  of  the  work  of  continua- 
tion schools.  Attention  must,  however,  be  called  to  the  fact 
that  boys  and  girls  leaving  the  public  schools  to  go  to  work 
should  not  suddenly  be  released  from  all  educational  influences 
and  from  all  supervision  and  control  by  the  educational 
authorities.  The  continuation  school,  largely  developed  in 
Germany  and  to  a  lesser  extent  in  England  and  Scotland,  has 
been  devised  to  meet  this  need.  In  the  words  of  Professor 
Sadler:  "The  purpose  of  the  continuation  school  is  to  provide 
at  convenient  hours  further  instruction  for  those  who  have 
already  left  the  day  school  and  have  entered  upon  the  practical 
work  of  life  whether  as  apprentices  or  as  independent  wage- 
earners  or  in  the  duties  of  the  home."1 

1  "It  endeavors  to  meet  the  needs  of  both  sexes.  It  presupposes  a  suffi- 
cient basis  of  elementary  education  but,  where  that  is  defective,  attempts 
to  supply  it.  The  lower  age-limit  of  its  pupils  varies  according  to  the  age 
at  which  boys  and  girls  are  released  from  compulsory  attendance  at 
the  elementary  day  school.  In  the  more  advanced  stages  of  its  work  the 


342     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

In  1909  the  English  Board  of  Education  submitted  to  Par- 
liament the  report  of  the  "  Consultative  Committee  on  Attend- 
ance, Compulsory  or  Otherwise,  at  Continuation  Schools,"  and 
the  findings  of  this  committee  should  be  carefully  studied  in 
our  own  country.  The  committee  emphasize  the  fact  that  in 
England  as  in  our  American  cities  and  states,  the  years 
from  fourteen  to  sixteen  are  years  of  "educational  leakage," 
that  children  of  fourteen  are  not  ''fitted  when  they  leave  the 
day  schools  to  be  transferred  to  their  various  callings  or  occu- 
pations without  further  school  attendance";  and  the  report 
notes  that  at  present  the  permanent  interests  of  the  community 
are  not  protected  "from  the  injury  which  is  done  to  the  charac- 
ter and  prospects  of  individuals  as  well  as  to  the  civic  welfare 
and  economic  resources  of  the  nation  by  educational  neglect 
during  adolescence  and  by  deteriorative  conditions  of  early 
employment.  The  committee  find  that  at  the  most  critical 
period  in  their  lives  a  very  large  majority  of  the  boys  and  girls 
in  England  and  Wales  are  left  without  any  sufficient  guidance 
and  care.  This  neglect  results  in  great  waste  of  early  promise, 
in  injury  to  character,  in  the  lessening  of  industrial  efficiency 
and  in  the  lowering  of  ideals  of  personal  and  civic  duty. 

"That  there  is  need  in  this  country  for  the  systematic 
encouragement  of  suitable  and  practical  kinds  of  continued 
education  beyond  the  now  too  early  close  of  the  Elementary 

continuation  school  includes  many  different  forms  of  adult  education.  The 
higher  age-limit  of  its  province  is  therefore  undefined.  The  task  of  the 
continuation  school  thus  falls  into  two  main,  though  not  clearly  demarcated, 
divisions — the  elementary  and  the  advanced.  Its  work  is  in  part  general 
education,  but  increasingly  (though  by  no  means  exclusively)  technical. 
Its  function  is  two-fold:  to  prepare  its  pupils  for  the  efficient  discharge  of 
the  duties  of  citizenship  and  to  increase  their  power  and  skill  in  bread- 
winning  occupations.  For  those  who  leave  the  elementary  school  at  thir- 
teen or  fourteen  years  of  age  and  cannot  proceed  to  a  secondary  school,  the 
continuation  school  attempts  to  give  during  adolescence  and  early  man- 
hood or  womanhood  such  opportunities  of  further  training  as  the  exigencies 
of  employment  may  permit."  M.  E.  Sadler,  Continuation  Schools  in  Eng- 
land and  Elsewhere,  p.  689. 


CHILDREN  BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SIXTEEN    343 

Day  School  course  is  the  conclusion  which  has  been  reached  by 
all  those  who  have  recently  investigated  the  subject."1 

It  is  essential,  if  the  continuation  school  is  adequately  to 
meet  the  needs  of  these  young  working  children,  that  attend- 
ance should  be  compulsory  and  that  the  working  hours  of 
children  should  be  so  adjusted  that  they  may  be  able  to  attend 
day  sessions.  The  old  method  of  continuing  the  education  of 
children  leaving  school  at  fourteen  was  to  provide  good  evening 
schools  for  them,  which  duplicated  the  work  of  the  day  schools 
and  provided  for  the  ambitious  boy  or  girl  a  chance  to  graduate 
from  the  eighth  grade  or  the  high  school.  It  has  been  proved 
that  this  method  is  wholly  inadequate.  Young  children  just 
leaving  school  to  go  to  work  cannot,  without  undue  fatigue, 
attend  evening  classes  after  a  day's  work  in  a  factory  or  an 
office.  The  German  system  of  compulsory  day  continuation 
classes,  which  permits  no  school  for  working  children  to  be  open 
after  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  is  the  only  rational  method 
of  meeting  this  problem. 

With  regard  to  the  question  of  making  attendance  at  con- 
tinuation schools  compulsory  and  not  voluntary,  attention  is 
called  to  the  following  emphatic  statement  from  a  recent  study 
of  the  continuation  school: 

"If  there  is  one  point  upon  which  authorities  who  have  had 
experience  of  voluntary  and  compulsory  continuation  schools 
in  England,  Germany,  and  America,  agree  today,  it  is  upon  the 
necessity  of  a  compulsory  system.  All  over  Germany  one  hears 
the  same  tale,  ....  'We  only  adopted  the  compulsory  prin- 
ciple when  the  voluntary  had  broken  down.'  ....  The  desire 
and  power  to  attend  continuation  classes  does  not  depend  solely 
on  the  willingness  of  the  employer  to  allow  such  attendance 

1  See  Great  Britain  Board  of  Education,  Report  of  the  Consultative 
Committee  on  Attendance,  Compulsory  or  Otherwise,  at  Continuation  Schools. 
Cd.  4757  (1909)  I:  p.  16.  And  see  Sadler,  op.  cit.,  chap,  xxv,  "Should 
Attendance  in  Continuation  Schools  Be  Made  Compulsory  in  England?" 


344     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

but  on  a  dozen  variable  conditions,  due  to  family,  health, 
employment,  surroundings,  prospects,  and  so  forth.  In  any 
case  it  must  always  leave  out  of  account  just  that  section  of  the 
children  who  most  need  the  regular  influence  of  humane  and 
sympathetic  persons."1 

The  compulsory  continuation  school  provides  a  definite 
practicable  method  of  keeping  in  touch  with  children  after  the 
period  of  full-time  compulsory  attendance  has  come  to  an  end. 

Not  only  are  continuation  schools  needed  as  a  connecting 
link  between  the  schools  and  the  child  who  is  thrown  suddenly 
into  the  working  world,  but  there  is  need  also  of  a  bureau  of 
employment  supervision  which  shall  save  the  child  the  waste- 
ful "hunt  for  a  job"  and  see  that  he  is  placed  in  work  to  which 
he  is  suited  and  in  which  he  may  advance.  Such  a  bureau  will 
also  prove  to  be  indispensable  in  connection  with  any  attempt 
to  return  boys  or  girls  to  school  when  they  are  out  of  work. 
For  if  the  official  school  employment  bureau  can  find  no  suit- 
able "jobs"  for  them,  it  is  obvious  that  they  must  be  kept  in 
school  until  such  jobs  are  available.  Moreover  the  existence 
of  such  an  employment  bureau  will  be  of  great  service  if  an 
attempt  is  to  be  made  to  prevent  any  child  from  leaving  school 
until  a  promise  of  work  has  been  secured  for  him.2  This  work 
of  supervising  and  guiding  the  working  child,  however,  is  at 
present  in  a  large  measure  palliative.  For  it  is  apparent  that 
no  method  of  "guidance"  can  succeed  with  uneducated  children 

1  R.  H.  Best  and  C.  K.  Ogden,  The  Problem  of  the  Continuation  School 
(London, 1914),  p.  56. 

'This  system  has  been  successfully  tried  in  many  English  cities  through 
the  co-operation  between  the  public  Juvenile  Labour  Exchanges  and  the 
local  educational  authorities.  See  our  pamphlet,  already  referred  to,  en- 
titled "Finding  Employment  for  Children  Who  Leave  the  Grade  Schools  to  Go 
to  Work,  with  its  bibliography  of  English  books  and  pamphlets  dealing  with 
the  subject.  See  especially,  F.  Keeling,  The  Labour  Exchange  in  Relation  to 
Boy  and  Girl  Labour,  and  A.  Greenwood,  Juvenile  Labour  Exchange  and 
After-Care. 


CHILDREN  BETWEEN  FOURTEEN  AND  SIXTEEN    345 

too  young  for  any  kind  of  successful  work.  "Employment 
supervision"  or  "vocational  guidance"  for  boys  who  are  allowed 
to  leave  school  at  the  fifth  grade  or  earlier  and  to  whom  nothing 
is  open  but  errand-boy  jobs  or  low-grade  work  in  a  box  factory 
must  necessarily  be  only  a  half-way  remedial  measure.  It 
may  succeed  in  finding  for  the  boy  the  best  employment  that 
exists  under  the  circumstances,  but  that  best  will  be  very  poor. 
That  is,  no  amount  of  supervision  or  guidance  in  finding  work 
will  take  the  place  of  adequate  elementary  education.  With  the 
raising  of  the  child  labor  and  compulsory  education  age,  the  field 
of  work  for  such  a  bureau  will,  of  course,  be  very  widely  extended.1 

1  Conditions  with  regard  to  the  employment  of  children  have  suddenly 
changed  since  this  chapter  was  written.  The  abnormal  industrial  condi- 
tions that  have  arisen  from  our  "war  prosperity"  and  the  cessation  of 
immigration  have  brought  a  great  and  pressing  demand  for  labor.  The 
scarcity  of  immigrant  labor  has  led  to  a  temporarily  increased  demand  for 
boys  and  girls  under  sixteen  years  of  age.  Department  stores  and  fac- 
tories that  a  few  months  ago  were  refusing  to  employ  anyone  under  sixteen 
years  of  age  are  now  advertising  for  boys  and  girls  between  fourteen  and 
sixteen.  One  of  the  packing  companies  in  the  stockyards  is  employing  chil- 
dren under  sixteen  to  do  the  unskilled  work  that  immigrants  formerly  did. 

At  present  there  are  not  enough  boys  and  girls  to  supply  the  demand. 
Employers  complain  that  they  have  had  "ads"  in  the  daily  papers  for 
two  or  three  weeks  at  a  time,  yet  no  one  has  responded.  Firms  which 
paid  an  initial  wage  of  $4 . 50  a  week  are  now  offering  $6 .  oo  a  week  to  errand 
boys  of  fourteen.  Employers  say  that  their  agents  have  been  walking  the 
streets  in  search  of  boys  and  girls.  It  has  not  been  unusual  for  an  employer 
to  offer  fifty  cents  or  a  dollar  a  week  more  to  an  errand  boy  delivering  a 
package  to  him,  in  order  to  get  the  boy  to  accept  a  position  with  him. 

The  situation  is  demoralizing  to  the  child.  The  great  demand  for  boys 
and  girls  causes  them  to  change  positions  frequently,  and  the  continual 
shifting  makes  for  unsteady  habits.  The  principals  of  the  elementary 
schools  say  that  children  who  are  leaving  school  have  positions  promised, 
and  it  is  the  prospect  of  an  immediate  job  that  is  causing  many  to  leave 
school.  It  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  there  are  also  more  complaints  that 
children  are  working  in  violation  of  the  child  labor  law.  There  is  also  serious 
danger  of  overwork.  One  employer  who  has  not  been  able  to  get  enough 
girls  to  do  his  work  has  been  giving  work  to  little  girls  of  fourteen  employed 
in  his  shop,  to  take  home  to  do  at  night. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS 

In  the  foregoing  chapters  an  attempt  has  been  made  to 
describe  the  administrative  machinery  which  has  gradually 
been  developed  to  protect  the  right  to  the  minimum  of  education 
which  the  state  has  undertaken  to  secure  to  all  its  children.  It 
has  been  necessary  to  study  the  history  of  the  long  years  during 
which  the  friends  of  education  in  Illinois  fought  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  free  common-school  system.  During  the  succeed- 
ing period,  the  local  authorities  were  busy  providing  the  required 
school  facilities  but  no  attempt  was  made  to  enforce  the  use  of 
those  facilities,  and  the  necessity  of  exercising  compulsion  on 
the  community  was  not  recognized  by  the  state.  Attention 
has  been  called  to  the  gradual  appreciation  of  the  fact  that, 
educational  opportunities  being  provided,  the  child  and  the 
parent  may  have  to  be  compelled  to  take  advantage  of  them. 
Finally,  a  careful  examination  of  the  situation  in  Chicago  indi- 
cates that,  although  the  principle  of  compulsion  has  been 
accepted,  there  are  defects  in  the  legislation  and  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  law  which  deprive  many  children  of  the  education 
ostensibly  secured  to  them  by  law. 

To  meet  these  various  defects  in  the  compulsory  education 
situation,  radical  changes  are  needed  both  in  the  child  labor 
and  compulsory  education  laws.  Without  waiting,  however, 
for  these  legislative  changes,  an  improvement  in  the  local  situa- 
tion could  be  brought  about  by  certain  changes,  easily  made, 
in  educational  policy.  We  do  not  undertake  to  recommend  in 
detail  the  action  to  be  taken,  but  we  venture  to  suggest  in  some- 
what general  terms,  certain  changes  the  desirability  of  which 

346 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS  347 

seems  to  be  established.    The  necessary  statutory  changes  may 
briefly  be  summarized  as  follows: 

1.  That  a  state  board  or  department  of  education  be  created 
which  shall  have,  among  other  functions,  the  duty  of  supervising 
and  standardizing  the  enforcement  of  the  school  attendance 
laws  in  all  portions  of  the  state.    The  compulsory  education 
laws  need  not,  like  the  factory  acts,  be  exclusively  enforced  by 
state  inspectors;    but  state  educational  inspectors  should  be 
authorized   to   see   that   the  local  authorities   through   their 
indifference  do  not  nullify  the  law.     Moreover,  the  state  school 
funds  should  be  distributed  upon  the  basis  of  attendance  rather 
than  of  enrolment  or  of  minor  population. I 

2.  That  the  exemption  from  school  attendance  of  children 
between  fourteen  and  sixteen  "lawfully  and  necessarily  em- 
ployed" be  done  away  with. 

3.  That  the  age  of  children  who  may  be  committed  to  the 
Parental  School  be  raised  to  sixteen  years. 

4.  That  the  age  of  lawful  employment  of  children  be  raised 
from  fourteen  to  sixteen  years. 

5.  That  the  issuing  of  working  papers  be  taken  from  the 
local  school  superintendents  and  given  over  to  the  state  edu- 
cation authority. 

6.  That  the  new  standard  for  the  issuing  of  working  papers 
should  prescribe  not  only  a  new  minimum  age,  sixteen  instead 
of  fourteen,  but  also  (a)  a  minimum  of  physical  development 
which  shall  insure  that  no  child  be  put  to  work  when  he  is 
physically  unfit  for  work,  and  (b)  a  new  minimum  of  educational 
development.    The  words  "in  English"  should  be  added  in  the 
new  law  to  the  reading  and  writing  tests,  in  order  that  every 
child,  foreign  or  native  born,  may  include  as  one  of  his  working 
tools  a  knowledge  of  the  language  of  the  country.     But  the  edu- 
cational minimum  should  be  higher  than  this.    To  the  present 

1  Note  that  the  early  laws  provided  for  the  apportionment  of  funds 
according  to  attendance.    See  Appendix  i,  doc.  5,  p.  363. 


348     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

educational  test  should  be  added  requirements  as  to  a  knowledge 
of  arithmetic,  which  shall  ensure  that  no  child  shall  leave  school 
to  go  to  work  before  he  has  completed  the  sixth  grade.  This 
is,  of  course,  an  inadequate  and  unsatisfactory  minimum.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  little  enough  for  a  democracy  to  require 
that  all  its  children  shall  complete  the  work  of  the  elementary 
schools.  This  can  easily  be  done  if  the  compulsory  attendance 
age  is  extended  to  sixteen.  It  could,  however,  be  done  now 
if  the  compulsory  attendance  period  began  at  five  or  even  six, 
instead  of  seven  years.  Certainly  the  vast  majority  of  children 
between  five  and  seven  are  better  off  in  a  well-conducted  school 
than  they  are  in  the  streets  or  in  an  ill-kept  home. 

7.  In  addition  to  raising  the  age  at  which  compulsory  attend- 
ance shall  cease,  we  venture  to  recommend  that  a  system  of 
compulsory  day  continuation  schools  be  developed  and  that 
attendance  upon  these  be  required  of  working  children  under 
eighteen  years  of  age  for  a  certain  specified  number  of  hours 
per  week.  In  this  way,  and  in  this  way  only,  can  the  school 
keep  under  its  supervision  during  the  first  difficult  years  of  their 
working  life  the  children  who  leave  school  to  go  to  work.1 

1  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  our  experience  in  regard  to  the  waste- 
fulness of  boy  and  girl  labor  has  been  duplicated  in  England,  and  that  the 
remedy  of  the  continuation  school  was  recommended  in  1909  by  the  Royal 
Commission  on  the  Poor  Laws  and  the  Relief  of  Distress.  "We  have  there- 
fore come  to  the  conclusion,"  says  the  minority  report,  "  that,  if  we  want 
to  turn  into  trained  and  competent  workmen  the  300,000  boys  who  now 
annually  start  wage-earning  at  something  or  another,  there  is  only  one 
practicable  plan:  we  must  shorten  the  legally  permissible  hours  of  employ- 
ment for  boys,  and  we  must  require  them  to  spend  the  hours  thus  set  free  in 
physical  and  technological  training."  The  majority  report  also  recommends 
raising  the  school-leaving  age  to  fifteen  and  "school  supervision  until  six- 
teen, the  re-placement  in  school  of  boys  not  properly  employed."  It  is  un- 
fortunately true  that  the  English  boy  or  girl  who  leaves  school  to  go  to  work 
has,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  reached  a  higher  grade  in  school  than  the 
American  boy  or  girl  who  goes  to  work.  Our  schools  may  or  may  not  be 
better  than,  for  example,  the  London  "Council  Schools."  At  any  rate  we 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS  349 

8.  That  provision  be  made  for  the  regular  attendance  at 
special  continuation  schools  of  children  between  sixteen  and 
eighteen  who  are  not  at  work.     In  order  that  the  school  may 
keep  in  touch  with  the  children  who  leave  to  go  to  work  and 
in  order  that  these  children  may  not  suffer  from  the  demoral- 
izing effects  of  idleness,  the  law  should  require  the  employer 
to  return  to  the  educational  authorities  the  working  certificate 
of  any  child  leaving  his  employ;  and  it  would  then  be  the  duty 
of  the  educational  authorities  to  secure  the  immediate  return  of 
this  child  to  school  pending  the  finding  of  a  new  "job."     More- 
over the  duty  of  securing  the  new  "job"  should  devolve  upon 
the  local  school  authorities.     That  this  can  be  done  has  been 
demonstrated  by  the  successful  work  of  the  Employment  Super- 
vision Bureau  which  is  now  maintained  by  the  Chicago  Board 
of  Education. 

9.  Finally,  education  should  be  made  compulsory  to  some 
extent  for  all  illiterate  minors,  a  class  of  persons  not  provided 
for  at  present  by  the  Illinois  law.    These  illiterates  would  be 
young  persons  under  twenty-one  years  of  age,  immigrants  from 
Europe,  or  newcomers  from  other  American  states  which  at 
present  make  no  provision,  or  inadequate  provision,  for  com- 
pulsory school  attendance.    The  new  law  should  provide  that 
all  illiterate  minors  must  attend  continuation  schools  until  they 
have  reached  the  age  of  twenty-one,  and  the  maintenance  of 
such  schools  with  day  as  well  as  evening  classes  should  in  this 
way  be  made  mandatory  upon  the  local  educational  authorities. 

spend  lavishly  upon  them.  But  a  vast  expenditure  goes  into  the  higher 
grades  and  high  schools  which  a  great  majority  of  our  working  children 
never  reach.  The  compulsory  education  period  for  the  London  boy  or  girl 
begins  at  five  instead  of  seven.  It  is  a  serious  question  to  which  more 
thought  should  be  given  as  to  whether  the  child  who  is  to  leave  school  to  go 
to  work  at  the  earliest  age  the  law  allows  should  not  begin  his  period  of 
compulsory  attendance  at  five  instead  of  seven  years  of  age.  If  this  is 
not  done  our  continuation  schools  will  be  doing  the  work  of  the  sixth,  seventh, 
and  eighth  grades  instead  of  providing  high  grade  technological  training. 


350     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Pending  such  changes  as  have  been  indicated  in  the  school 
and  child  labor  laws  of  the  state,  the  following  recommen- 
dations, which  we  believe  can  be  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Ed- 
ucation without  additional  legislative  authority,  are  suggested: 

1.  That  the  system  of  recording  attendance  be  so  reorgan- 
ized that  the  facts  with  reference  to  non-attendance  may  be 
ascertained. 

2.  That  causes  of  absence  justifying  excuse  by  principals 
and  teachers  be  enumerated  and  defined. 

3.  That  a  transfer  system  be  installed  which  shall  mean  the 
following-up  of  every  child  to  whom  a  transfer  is  issued,  until 
he  is  re-enrolled  in  school. 

4.  That  provision  be  made  at  the  Parental  School  for  truant 
girls. 

5.  That  the  school  census  be  taken  annually  in  the  early 
autumn  instead  of,  as  at  present,  biennially  in  the  spring  or 
early  summer,  and  that  a  permanent  register  of  all  minors  be 
kept  with  a  record  of  .their  school  attendance.    This  change 
should  be  made  pending  the  establishment  under  state  super- 
vision of  a  permanent  census  board. 

6.  That  there  be  gradually  developed  a  staff  of  school  visi- 
tors whose  function  it  shall  be  to  relate  the  school  to  the  home 
and  to  render  such  services  as  will  tend  to  do  away  with  causes 
now  leading  to  non-attendance  and  truancy. 

7.  That  the  Vocational  Supervision  Bureau  be  developed 
and  adequately  supported  so  that  every  child  may  be  saved 
from  the  demoralization  of  "hunting  a  job"  and  idling  on  the 
street  or  working  at  unsuitable  employments.     So  long  as  we 
allow  the  poorest  children  in  the  community  to  go  to  work  at 
the  age  of  fourteen,  the  educational  authorities  should  assume 
the  obligation  of  keeping  in  touch  with  the  child  after  he  leaves 
school,  rinding  suitable  work  for  him  if  such  work  is  available, 
and,  in  default  of  suitable  work,  exercising  such  pressure  as 
the  law  allows  to  compel  the  return  of  the  child  to  school. 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS  351 

Failing  this,  the  community  will  continue  to  be  troubled  with 
the  problem  of  "baby  bandits"  and  juvenile  crime.1  The  money 
expended  on  the  Vocational  Supervision  Bureau  will  do  much 
to  prevent  the  expenditure  of  larger  sums  on  probation  officers, 
jails,  and  correctional  institutions  for  delinquent  boys  and  girls. 
A  further  recommendation  concerns  the  federal  government. 
We  adopt  the  suggestion  that  has  already  been  made  by  those 
interested  in  the  immigration  problem  that  the  federal  immi- 
gration authorities  at  the  various  ports  of  entry  to  which 
immigrants  are  admitted  should  send  the  names  and  addresses 
of  all  immigrant  minors  to  the  educational  authorities  of  the 
various  cities  and  towns  which  the  immigrants  specify  as  their 
destination.  Only  in  this  way  can  the  compulsory  education 
laws  be  made  of  service  to  the  immigrant  children  who  are  so 
sorely  in  need  of  their  protection.  Only  in  this  way  can  the 
immigrant  be  promptly  and  properly  Americanized.  We  recom- 
mend that  the  local  educational  authorities  request  the  Com- 
missioner-General of  Immigration  and  the  Secretary  of  Labor 
to  direct  that  such  action  be  taken. 

1  The  report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  the  Poor  Laws  of  1909  may  be 
profitably  referred  to  again  at  this  point.  The  minority  report  says, 
"With  regard  to  the  need  for  extending,  to  boys  between  fourteen 
and  eighteen,  something  like  the  supervision  and  control  exercised  over 
them  whilst  at  school,  there  is  abundant  evidence.  At  present,  as  in  the 
past,  it  is  mainly  the  'juvenile  adult,'  between  sixteen  and  twenty-one,  who 
recruits  our  prison  population.  It  is  the  absence  of  any  system  of  control 
and  organisation  for  the  employment  of  the  young  which  is  universally  de- 
clared to  be  one  of  the  principal  causes  of  wrong-doing.  'When  a  boy 
leaves  school  the  hands  of  organisation  and  compulsion  are  lifted  from  his 
shoulders.  If  he  is  the  son  of  very  poor  parents,  his  father  has  no  influence, 
nor,  indeed,  a  spare  hour,  to  find  work  for  him;  he  must  find  it  for  himself; 
generally  he  does  find  a  job,  and  if  it  does  not  land  him  into  a  dead  alley  at 
eighteen  he  is  fortunate.  Or  he  drifts,  and  the  tidy  scholar  soon  becomes 
a  ragged  and  defiant  corner  loafer.  Over  80  per  cent  of  our  charges  admit 
that  they  were  not  at  work  when  they  got  into  trouble'"  (Minority  Report, 
Part  II,  p.  653). 


352     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

These  recommendations  we  feel  to  be  reasonable  and  con- 
servative proposals.  They  are  very  far  from  including  all 
desirable  changes,  but  they  include  those  for  which  it  seems 
practicable  to  ask  at  the  present  time,  and  even  these  moderate 
changes  will,  we  believe,  contribute  largely  to  the  efficiency  of 
the  school  system.  We  do  not  claim  that  they  will  wholly 
solve  the  problems  connected  with  compulsory  school  attend- 
ance. The  heavy  burden  resting  on  the  heads  of  families  among 
the  poor  should  never  be  forgotten.  We  have  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  various  laws  for  safeguarding  the  rights  of 
children  create  new  rights  in  them  and  lay  new  duties  on  the 
father.  The  performance  of  these  duties  necessitates  meeting 
the  cost  of  the  child's  support  and  care  out  of  the  father's  earn- 
ings instead  of  from  the  earnings  of  the  child;  and  this  should 
mean,  must  mean,  in  fact,  a  higher  standard  of  wages  for  the 
father.  Only  when  wages  have  been  raised  to  correspond 
to  the  rising  standards  of  child-care,  will  the  real  weaknesses 
in  the  present  system  be  wholly  done  away  with. 

It  has  not,  perhaps,  been  sufficiently  emphasized  that  tru- 
ancy and  non-attendance  are  primarily  problems  of  poverty.  It 
is  because  people  are  poor  that  they  are  tempted  to  take  their 
children  out  of  school  and  to  put  them  to  work  while  they  are 
very  young.  "Man  cannot  live  by  bread  alone"  it  was  said 
many  centuries  ago;  but  it  is  also  true  that  man  cannot  live  by 
books  alone.  So  long  as  vast  numbers  of  people  find  it  so 
difficult,  and  at  times  impossible,  to  provide  adequate  food 
and  clothing  for  the  children  for  whom  the  state  is  providing 
education,  just  so  long  will  many  children  find  it  impossible 
to  attend  school  regularly.  The  earlier  compulsory  laws  in 
several  states  provided  that  children  might  be  excused  from 
compulsory  attendance  on  the  ground  of  poverty;  that  is,  the 
law  recognized  that  there  were  families  in  the  community  in 
which  the  child's  earnings  even  at  an  early  age  were  so  necessary 
that  the  family's  need  of  maintenance  must  be  placed  above 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS  353 

the  child's  need  of  an  education.  Later,  the  law  abolished 
this  exemption  on  the  ground  of  poverty  and  became  universal 
in  its  application;  but  the  law  in  laying  new  burdens  upon 
parents  who  are  already  so  overburdened,  gave  no  new  resources 
with  which  to  meet  the  added  requirements. 

In  a  few  states  free  instruction  has  been  supplemented  by 
free  books,  not  for  poor  children  alone  but  for  all  children.  In 
a  few  countries  the  cost  of  the  child's  support  has  been  shared 
when  the  educational  authorities  have  also  added  free  dinners, 
but  the  dinners  are  free  only  to  destitute  children.  It  is  doubt- 
ful whether  free  dinners  will  ever  be  acceptable  in  this  country 
unless  like  free  education  and  free  books,  they  are  made  free  for 
all.  If  this  is  not  done,  those  who  most  need  the  free  services 
will  not  endure  the  humiliation  of  accepting  them  on  the  condi- 
tion of  proving  destitution.  It  is  a  hopeful  sign  that,  in  a  de- 
mocracy like  ours,  people  resent  assistance  for  which  they  are 
singled  out  solely  on  the  ground  of  their  poverty.1  But  it  should 
not  be  overlooked  that  even  if  these  supplementary  costs  of 
education  are  made  free,  as  instruction  has  now  generally  been 
made  free,  there  remain  the  other  costs  of  the  child's  mainte- 
nance for  which  his  own  earnings  are  no  longer  available  when 
the  state  makes  his  school  attendance  compulsory.  Obviously, 
the  only  solution  in  accord  with  the  standards  of  a  democ- 
racy is  such  a  permanent  lifting  of  the  wage  levels  as  will 
make  possible  the  higher  standard  of  living  that  is,  in  practice, 
demanded  by  the  state. 

7  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  when  the  free-school  law  of  1855  was 
passed,  the  proposal  to  make  education  free  only  for  the  poor  was  rejected. 
The  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  said  in  his  report  to  the 
Nineteenth  General  Assembly  of  Illinois:  "I  cannot  too  strongly  urge 
the  importance  of  making  education  free,  alike  to  the  rich  and  the  poor. 
The  system  which  provides  for  the  education  only  of  the  poor  is  necessarily 
unsuccessful.  It  has  ever  been,  and  ever  will  be,  regarded  as  a  part  of  the 
pauper  system;  and  in  a  country  like  ours  few  will  consent  to  appear  on  the 
pauper  list."  See  Appendix  I,  doc.  10,  p.  373. 


APPENDIX  I 

EXTRACTS   FROM  DOCUMENTS   RELATING   TO  THE   AGITA- 
TION FOR  A  SYSTEM  OF  FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  A 
COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE  LAW 

Extracts  from  (i)  Communication  of  Governor  Duncan  to  the  General 
Assembly,  1834;  (2)  Report  to  the  State  Senate,  1834:  Organization 
of  a  State-Wide  System  of  Free  Schools;  (3)  Memorial  of  the  Illinois 
Education  Society  to  the  General  Assembly,  1841;  (4)  Inaugural  Ad- 
dress of  Governor  Ford,  1842;  (5)  Memorial  in  Behalf  of  Common 
Schools,  1844;  (6)  Message  of  Governor  Ford  to  the  General  Assembly, 
1844;  (7)  Report  of  the  First  State  Superintendent  of  Common 
Schools,  1853;  (8)  Inaugural  Message  of  Governor  Matteson,  1853; 
(9)  Biennial  Report  of  the  State  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools, 
*853;  (10)  ibid.,  1855;  (n)  Message  of  Governor  Matteson  to  the 
Twentieth  General  Assembly,  1857;  (12)  Report  of  the  State 
Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  1867-68;  (13)  ibid.,  1869-70; 
(14)  ibid.,  1871-72. 

(i)    Extract  from  Communication  of  Governor  Duncan  to  the 
Ninth  General  Assembly,  December  j,  1834 

As  every  country  is  prosperous  and  respected  in  proportion  to 
the  virtue  and  intelligence  of  its  inhabitants,  the  subject  of  education 
will  doubtless  again  form  an  important  part  of  your  deliberations. 
The  State  possesses  a  fund  devoted  to  this  purpose,  amounting  to 
something  over  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  As  this  amount,  if 
invested  in  stocks,  is  too  small  to  produce  an  annual  income  at  all 
proportionate  to  the  wants  of  the  present  generation,  I  would  recom- 
mend that  a  system  be  adopted,  by  which  the  amount  of  this  fund 
may  be  divided  equally  among  the  people,  and  applied  to  the  purposes 
of  education,  which  may  also  provide  for  the  future  division,  upon 
the  same  principle,  of  such  other  sums  as  may  hereafter  be  derived 
from  the  United  States,  on  account  of  the  three  per  cent,  set  apart 
from  receipt  on  sales  of  the  public  lands,  the  school  sections,  and 
such  other  sources  as  can,  with  propriety,  be  provided. 

354 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE    355 

In  a  State  like  this,  many  parts  of  which  are  sparsely  settled  by 
people  encountering  those  difficulties  incident  to  the  improvement  of 
a  new  country,  it  would  be  wrong  to  think  of  accumulating  a  fund 
out  of  our  present  resources,  for  the  exclusive  education  of  future 
generations;  while  those,  who  are  in  a  few  years  to  give  character 
to  our  society,  and  to  direct  the  operations  of  our  government,  are 
permitted  to  grow  up  without  the  possibility  of  obtaining  an  edu- 
cation— that  greatest  of  human  blessings. 

It  becomes  us  to  use  every  exertion  in  our  power  to  instruct  those 
who  are  immediately  dependent  upon  us,  and  leave  to  those  who  come 
after  us,  the  rich  revenues  to  be  derived  from  the  lands,  canals  and 
other  improvements,  to  form  a  permanent  fund  to  carry  out  any 
plans  you  may  now  adopt  for  the  purposes  of  education. 

This  view  of  the  case  derives  force  from  the  fact,  that  the  general 
government  in  setting  apart  this  fund  and  a  portion  of  the  public 
land  for  education,  intended  it  as  an  inducement  to  the  early  settle- 
ment of  the  country.  It  would  seem  unjust  therefore,  that  those 
who  have  done  so  much  to  fill  the  national  treasury,  and  advance 
the  interests  of  the  country,  should  be  compelled  to  witness  a  fund, 
intended  as  a  reward  for  their  labors  and  sacrifices,  laid  by  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  may  come  after  them. 

A  government  like  ours,  controlled  and  carried  on  by  the  will  of 
the  people,  should  be  careful  to  use  all  the  means  hi  its  power,  to 
enlighten  the  minds  of  those  who  are  destined  to  exercise  so  important 
a  trust.  This,  and  every  consideration  connected  with  the  virtue, 
elevation,  and  happiness  of  man,  and  the  character  and  prosperity 
of  our  state,  and  of  our  common  country,  calls  upon  you  to  establish 
some  permanent  system  of  common  schools,  by  which  an  education 
may  be  placed  within  the  power,  nay,  if  possible,  secured  to  every 
child  in  the  State. 

(2)     Organization  of  a  State-Wide  System  of  Free  Schools  (Extract 

from  the  Journal  of  the  Senate,  Ninth  General 

Assembly,  February,  1835) 

"Knowledge  is  power,"  and  if  knowledge  be  confined  to  a  few, 
no  matter  by  what  name  our  government  may  be  called,  it  would 
not  be  a  republic,  but  an  aristocracy.  If,  in  our  own  community,  a 


356     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

certain  portion  of  the  people  be  permitted  to  remain  in  ignorance, 
that  portion  will  be  better  fitted  for  the  use  of  the  other,  than 
they  will  be  to  discharge  the  duties  imposed  upon  them  by  their 
country.  It  is  the  true  policy  of  a  free  government  to  remove  all 
unnecessary  distinctions  among  its  citizens,  and  to  make  all  equal, 
not  by  pulling  down  those  who  are  above,  but  by  raising  those  who 
are  below 

Our  government  is  not  adapted  to  an  ignorant  community,  and 
its  free  institutions  cannot  long  be  supported  by  an  ignorant  people. 
Would  we  then  preserve  and  perpetuate  the  free  institutions  of  our 
country,  one  thing  is  essential,  and  that  is,  universal  education. 
He  who  stops  short  of  that,  stops  short  of  universal  liberty. 

Universal  education,  then,  is  the  great  object  to  be  gained,  but 

how  shall  this  be  done  ?  The  answer  is,  by  means  of  schools 

Without  the  aid  of  schools,  there  can  be  no  hope  of  an  intelligent 
community 

What  kind  of  schools  will  be  most  likely  to  accomplish  our  great 
object  ?  In  some  portions  of  our  country  the  schools  have  been  left 
almost  entirely  to  individual  exertion.  In  those  portions,  many 
persons  may  be  found  who  are  unable  to  read,  especially  among  the 
poorer  class  of  people.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  poor  schools, 
which  have  been  established  by  law  in  some  of  the  states.  In  those 
states,  the  legislatures  seem  to  have  acted  upon  a  wrong  principle. 
The  education  of  the  poor  was  regarded  as  an  act  of  charity.  "Let 
the  rich  educate  themselves,"  they  said,  "and  we  will  educate  the 
poor."  Now,  whether  this  principle  be  right  or  wrong,  its  operation 
will  at  least  show  that  it  would  be  impracticable  to  adopt  it  here: 
for  where  it  has  prevailed,  according  to  the  best  information  that  can 
be  obtained,  one  third  part  of  the  whole  people  are  unable  to  read, 
and  what  is  more  unfortunate  still,  that  third  part  is  chiefly  con- 
fined to  the  poor.  This  principle  would  do  very  well  for  a  monarchy, 
whose  policy  was  to  keep  a  portion  of  its  subjects  in  ignorance;  but 
in  a  government  like  ours,  where  the  doctrine  of  equal  rights  is  so 
much  cherished,  it  seems  strangely  inconsistent  that  a  principle  which 
degrades  the  poor  man,  because  he  is  poor,  should  so  long  prevail. 
This  is,  hi  reality,  its  effect,  for  the  poor  man  has  no  chance  to  rise 
in  the  world,  unless  it  be  by  education.  Give  him  this,  and  he  is,  at 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE    357 

once,  placed  upon  a  level  with  the  rich — deny  him  this,  and  he  is 
degraded. 

In  other  portions  a  different  principle  has  been  adopted.  Com- 
mon education  is  regarded  as  a  public  benefit,  and  the  schools  are 
thrown  open  to  all  alike — they  are  free.  The  rich  man's  son,  and  the 
poor  man's  son  meet  on  the  same  common  level.  Free  schools  have 
been  adopted  in  the  New-England  states,  New- York,  and  Ohio. 
What  has  been  their  effect  ?  for  the  principle,  in  this  case,  as  in  others, 
can  be  tested  by  its  effects.  In  every  state  where  free  schools  have 
long  prevailed,  it  is  very  difficult  to  find  a  single  person  who  is  unable 
to  read  and  write.  The  principle  may  be  further  tested  by  a  well 
authenticated  fact.  In  New- York,  the  proportion  of  children  in 
schools,  compared  with  the  whole  population,  is  as  one  to  three 
and  nine-tenths;  in  Massachusetts,  as  one  to  four;  in  Connecticut, 
as  one  to  between  five  and  six;  in  Kentucky,  Virginia,  and 
Illinois,  according  to  the  most  accurate  estimation,  as  one  to  about 
thirteen. 

Where  free  schools  prevail,  the  state  exacts  of  its  people  what 
they  may  have  to  give;  of  the  rich  man  his  money — of  the  poor  man 
his  children,  educated  and  qualified  to  support  the  great  principles 
of  enlightened  liberty.  Free  schools  (and  it  cannot  be  said  of  any 
others)  break  down  the  unnatural  distinctions  in  society.  They 
carry  out  the  doctrine  of  equality,  and  bring  all  upon  a  level,  by 
making  all  enlightened.  They  have  accomplished  what  no  other 
schools  have  ever  yet  accomplished — universal  education.  We 
may,  then,  safely  come  to  the  conclusion,  that,  whatever  may  be  the 
system  adopted  in  this  state,  the  schools  should  be  free.  They  are 
indeed  the  only  common  schools  upon  which  a  free  government  can 
with  safety  rely. 

This  principle  being  settled,  the  inquiry  then  remains,  what  shall 
be  the  details,  and  how  shall  a  system  of  common  free  schools  be 
carried  into  practical  operation  in  Illinois?  .... 

It  has  sometimes  been  said  that  it  is  not  yet  time  to  establish 
a  system  of  schools  in  Illinois.  It  should  be  remarked,  that  if  it  be 
time  to  encourage  the  organization  of  a  single  school  in  the  state,  it 
is  time  to  establish  a  system  like  this.  This  system  proposes  no 
compulsory  measures;  it  interferes  with  no  school  district  already 


358     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

formed.  It  merely  proposes  to  encourage  education  by  applying 
such  means  as  are  available,  and  it  prescribes  the  manner  in  which 
it  will  apply  them.  Never  were  the  people  of  Illinois  more  active 
and  zealous  on  the  subject  of  education,  than  they  are  now.  They 
not  only  expect  but  they  demand  a  better  system  of  schools;  and 
they  have  spoken  to  that  effect,  both  at  home  and  in  their  late  con- 
vention; in  a  voice  too  that  will  be  understood.  So  popular  indeed 
is  the  subject  of  education  now  in  this  state,  that  it  is  advocated  in 
every  newspaper;  its  praises  are  sung  on  every  "stump"  and  scarce 
an  individual  can  be  found  who  is  opposed  to  it. 

There  is  another  consideration  which  should  not  remain  unnoticed. 
If  the  state  should  neglect  to  establish  public  schools,  many  indi- 
viduals would  be  compelled  to  organize  private  ones,  for  the  edu- 
cation of  their  own  children.  These  would  be  serious  impediments, 
for  when  the  state  should  attempt  (and  this  will  be  done  sooner  or 
later,)  to  establish  a  general  system  of  schools  and  seminaries,  it 
could  not  then,  as  it  can  now,  rely  upon  the  influence  and  aid  of  such 
individuals.  Their  sympathies  and  feelings  would  be  very  naturally 
enlisted  in  favor  of  the  schools  of  their  own  creation,  and  their 
children  would  not  attend  the  public  schools,  the  consequence  of 
which  would  be  to  lessen  the  respectability  of  the  public  schools  and 
deprive  them  of  much  of  their  usefulness.  Unimportant  as  this 
may  seem  to  be,  it  is  a  serious  evil,  and  one  which  the  state  of  New- 
York,  with  probably  the  best  system  of  common  schools  in  the 
country,  has  not  yet  overcome.  Ought  such  a  system  be  established 
in  Illinois  ?  This  is  a  question  that  we  shall  be  called  upon  to  decide 
and  in  deciding  it,  let  it  be  remembered  that  we  pass  judgment  upon 
no  ordinary  subject.  This  is  a  measure  that  will  affect  the  interest 
of  every  parent  and  child  in  the  community;  a  measure  whose  influ- 
ence will  extend  to  millions  now  unborn,  through  ages  yet  to  come. 
Our  future  liberty  or  future  bondage  may  depend  upon  the  decision 
of  this,  or  a  similar  question.  The  time  may  yet  come — it  will 
come — when  we  must  rally  around  our  common  schools,  or  bow  our 

necks  before  the  throne  of  arbitrary  power True  to  ourselves, 

to  our  children  and  our  country,  let  us  cling  to  our  common  schools, 
and  lay  firmly  and  deeply  the  only  foundation  on  which  we  can  safely 
rely. 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE    359 

Leave  is,  therefore,  asked  to  introduce  the  accompanying  Reso- 
lution and  Bill.    All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted. 


RESOLUTION 

Whereas,  the  subject  of  education  is  of  deep  and  abiding  interest 
to  the  inhabitants  of  Illinois;  whereas,  the  time  has  arrived,  when 
some  efficient  means  ought  to  be  adopted  to  effect  the  establishment 
of  a  uniform  system  of  common  schools,  that  will  secure  to  all  classes 
at  least  a  common  education,  to  accomplish  which,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  establish  a  seminary  in  each  county  in  the  state,  for  the  qualifi- 
cation of  teachers  for  the  common  schools  within  the  county;  whereas 
the  present  resources  of  the  country  are  altogether  insufficient  to 
effect  this  desirable  object,  and  it  is  not  in  the  nature  of  things,  that 
the  people  of  the  state  of  Illinois,  however  animated  their  enterprise 
may  be,  can,  with  hope  of  success,  engage  in  an  undertaking  of  such 
magnitude,  while  all  their  resources  are  continually  drawn  from  them 
to  the  general  government,  by  the  sale  of  the  public  domain;  and, 
whereas,  the  payment  of  the  national  debt  has  in  a  measure  released 
the  lien  of  the  general  government  to  the  lands  within  this  state,  and 
has  left  much  power  in  the  hands  of  Congress  to  dispose  of  the  public 
domain,  for  objects  of  permanent  utility  and  advantage,  by  appro- 
priating, for  the  advancement  of  knowledge,  a  portion  of  those  lands: 
Therefore,  to  enable  this  state  to  unite  a  uniform  system  of  common 
schools  and  county  seminaries,  as  indicated,  and  for  that  purpose 
to  establish  a  seminary  in  each  county  for  the  qualification  of  teach- 
ers, and  instruction  in  the  higher  branches  of  education,  not  however 
with  such  endowments  as  would  exclude  the  hope  of  dependence 
upon  individual  enterprise  and  popular  co-operation: 

Resolved,  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  That  our 
Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress  be  requested  to  use  all 
honorable  means  to  procure  the  passage  of  a  law  by  Congress,  granting 
to  the  state  of  Illinois  a  reasonable  quantity  of  land,  or  a  portion  of 
the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands  within  this  state,  to  be 
appropriated,  under  the  direction  of  the  legislature,  towards  the 
support  of  the  several  county  seminaries,  for  the  qualification  of 
teachers  for  the  common  schools. 


360     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

(3)     Memorial  of  the  Illinois  Education  Society  to  the  General 
Assembly,  1841 

To  the  Honorable  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  Illinois: 

GENTLEMEN:  The  Illinois  Education  Society,  assembled  in 
Springfield,  feeling  a  deep  interest  in  the  cause  of  education,  and 
especially  in  the  improvement  of  the  school  laws,  by  such  slight 
amendments  as  experience  has  suggested  to  be  necessary,  would 
respectfully  submit  to  your  consideration  the  following  suggestions, 
ist.  That  a  reference  to  the  act  of  1818,  which  gave  rise  to  our 
school  funds,  shows  that  Congress  designed  the  general  school  fund 
"to  be  appropriated  by  the  Legislature  of  the  State  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  learning,"  in  contradistinction  to  the  grant  of  section  num- 
bered sixteen  in  every  township  which  was  '  'granted  to  the  State  for 
the  use  of  the  inhabitants  of  such  township  for  the  use  of  schools," 
that  the  latter  was  a  grant  to  promote  the  education  of  the  children 
of  a  particular  township,  whilst  the  former  extended  to  the  children 

of  the  whole  State,  irrespective  of  their  place  of  residence 

The  legitimate  conclusion  from  these  considerations  is,  that  the 
interest  upon  the  school  fund  should  not  be  distributed  to  counties, 
according  to  population,  but  according  to  the  number  of  children  in 
school.  The  blessings  of  the  fund  can  only  be  distributed  to  the 
children  in  school;  and  it  is  a  singular  position  to  assume,  that  the 
children  in  one  county  shall  be  the  peculiar  objects  of  legislative 
favor,  because  a  great  many  of  the  children  of  the  county  do  not 
attend  school,  and  that  the  children  of  another  county  shall  be  less 
favored,  because  all  or  nearly  all  of  its  children  are  in  school.  If  the 
number  of  children  in  schools  is  made  the  basis  of  distribution,  equal 
justice  will  be  done  to  all  the  children  of  the  State,  and  the  Legisla- 
ture will  be  faithful  to  the  high  trust  committed  to  their  charge. 

2d.  As  your  memorialists  desire  that  the  legislation  upon  the 
subject  of  our  township  funds  should  be  the  most  perfect,  and  that 
those  funds  should  be  most  cautiously  guarded,  and  as  many  of  the 
people  do  believe  that  our  township  funds,  though  loaned  at  12  per 
cent,  will  not  (after  paying  all  the  losses,  charges,  and  expenses 
incident  to  their  management)  actually  pay  more  than  six  per  cent. 
to  the  support  of  the  schools,  and  that  not  punctually,  (a  matter  of 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE    361 

great  moment  to  the  school  teacher,)  they  would  recommend  that 
the  trustees  of  incorporated  townships,  and  the  school  commissioners, 
should  set  forth  in  the  reports,  (which  they  are  now  by  law  required 
to  make,)  how  much  of  the  township  fund  is  hopelessly  lost — how 
much  is  doubtful — how  much  is  in  suit — how  much  is  annually 
paid  out  to  lawyers,  clerks,  sheriffs,  and  all  others,  in  the  manage- 
ment of  said  funds;  and  what  proportion  of  the  interest  is  paid 
punctually 

4th.  If  a  majority  of  three-fourths  of  the  legal  voters  of  a  town- 
ship should  desire  to  tax  themselves,  to  a  limited  amount,  for  school 
purposes,  they  should  be  permitted  so  to  do.  What  evils  could  grow 
out  of  trusting  three-fourths  of  the  people  of  a  township  with  the 
liberty  of  thus  acting  for  themselves,  in  the  education  of  their  chil- 
dren ?  This  action  would  only  affect  the  township  concerned,  and 
your  memorialists  do  not  believe  that  any  portion  of  the  people  will 
pay  more  for  education  than  it  is  worth,  or  that  the  power  of  improv- 
ing the  schools  of  a  township  should  be  withheld  from  the  people 
thereof,  when  they  perceive  the  importance  of  cultivating  the  minds 
of  their  children,  and  are  willing  to  tax  themselves,  that  the  light  of 
science  may  shine  upon  them. 

5th.  The  Legislature  has  wisely  determined,  that  no  teacher 
shall  be  permitted  to  receive  more  than  half  of  his  salary  from  the 
general  school  fund.  Would  it  not  be  wise  to  give  the  townships 
which  are,  or  shall  become,  incorporated,  the  power  of  making  a 
similar  provision  in  relation  to  their  local  funds,  and  of  appropriating 
their  surplus,  if  any,  to  the  purposes  of  education  ?  The  reason  of 
this  suggestion  is  obvious.  If  the  educational  funds  entirely  relieve 
parents  from  contributing  towards  the  education  of  their  children, 
they  lose  that  interest  in  the  schools  which  must  be  kept  up  if  we 
have  good  schools 

6th.  Upon  the  same  principle  of  helping  those  who  are  willing 
to  help  themselves,  your  memorialists  would  suggest  that,  after  the 
lapse  of  one  year  no  school  should  be  permitted  to  draw  any  portion 
from  the  State  fund,  unless  the  same  should  be  kept  up  for  the  space 
of  three  months;  and  that  after  two  years  no  school  should  derive 
any  aid  from  said  fund,  unless  kept  up  for  the  space  of  three  months, 
and  also,  unless  it  should  be  taught  in  a  house  erected  upon  a  school 


362     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

lot  secured  to  the  trustees  of  townships,  as  is  now  provided  by  law, 
(see  Acts  of  1835,)  with  this  further  principle  annexed,  that  the 
schools  taught  in  said  houses  should  be  open,  upon  equal  terms,  to 
all  white  applicants  of  good  moral  character,  irrespective  of  religious 

opinions 

8th.  Let  a  superintendent  of  common  schools  be  appointed — a 
man  of  talents — and  yet  a  laborious  and  self-denying  man.  One 
who  would  go  into  all  the  dark  corners,  as  well  as  bright  spots,  of  the 
State,  and  labor  day  in  and  day  out  for  the  improvement  of  our 
common  schools.  Such  a  man  would  be  of  great  use,  not  only  in 
awaking  the  public  to  the  importance  of  education,  but  by  collecting 
facts  for  the  information  of  your  honorable  body,  and  the  people. 
....  He  would  (a  matter  of  no  mean  moment  to  the  success  of 
common  school  education)  do  much  towards  bringing  about  a  steady 
and  uniform  administration  of  the  law 

(4)     Misuse  of  School  Funds  (Extract  from  the  Inaugural  A  ddress 

of  Governor  Ford  to  the  General  Assembly, 

December  5,  1842) 


As  it  has  already  been  stated,  the  school  fund  amounts  to 
104.39.  Of  this,  $335,592.21  is  derived  from  the  surplus  revenue; 
$415,575.52  from  the  three  per  cent,  school  fund,  and  $56,917.66 
from  the  sale  of  seminary  lands.  It  appears  also,  that  there  is  now 
due  to  the  State  on  account  of  the  three  per  cent,  fund,  the  further 
sum  of  $37,206 .39;  and  $41,909. 35  appears  to  be  coming  to  the  State 
as  our  distributive  share  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public 
lands.  This  latter  sum,  if  received,  the  General  Assembly  can  right- 
fully appropriate  as  the  wants  of  the  State  may  require,  but  the 
former  is  sacred  to  the  purpose  of  education.  It  has  been  our  former 
practice,  on  account  of  a  deficiency  of  revenue  and  too  much  fear  of 
levying  adequate  taxes,  to  borrow  this  fund  as  it  occurred,  to  pay 
the  current  expenses  of  government,  and  promise  an  interest  of  six 
per  cent,  to  be  distributed  amongst  the  several  counties.  Good  faith 
to  ourselves,  to  the  United  States  from  which  it  is  derived,  and  to  the 
rising  generation,  created  the  most  sacred  obligation  that  this  interest 
should  have  been  punctually  paid  in  good  money.  On  the  contrary, 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE    363 

it  has  been  paid,  for  nearly  a  year  past,  in  depreciated  paper,  and 
there  is  no  provision  by  existing  laws,  for  paying  it  otherwise  in 
future.  It  does  seem  then  that  if  we  find  ourselves  unable  to  make 
payment  in  cash  or  its  just  equivalent,  it  is  little  better  than  robbery 
to  continue  the  system  of  borrowing,  and  a  guilt  but  little  less  is  con- 
tracted, if  we  refuse  to  make  provision  for  paying  interest  in  good 
funds,  on  the  sum  already  borrowed.  It  is  unfortunate  that  no  system 
of  revenue  and  expenditure  has  ever  existed  in  this  State;  the  appro- 
priations have  generally  exceeded  the  revenue,  and  hence  the  neces- 
sity of  borrowing  the  school  fund  as  a  means  of  paying  current 
expenses. 

(5)     Extracts  from  a  Memorial  in  Behalf  of  Common  Schools, 
Passed  at  the  Convention  Held  at  Peoria  in  October,  1844 

[The  first  sections  of  the  report  contain  recommendations  deal- 
ing with  the  possible  duties  of  state  and  county  superintendents  of 
schools,  the  school  fund,  etc.] 

§  8 A  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of  a  school  district 

may  vote  to  raise  a  tax  for  purchasing,  building,  or  repairing  school 
houses,  and  to  defray  the  expenses  attendant  upon  the  schools. 

§  9.  The  teachers  to  keep  a  faithful  schedule  of  the  attendance 
of  all  scholars,  the  correctness  of  which  is  to  be  certified  to  by  the 
directors,  upon  which  schedule  the  teacher  shall  draw  his  proportion 
of  the  public  funds,  pro  rata,  according  to  the  number  of  days  in 
attendance  by  the  scholars. 

§  10.  No  teacher  to  be  allowed  any  proportion  of  the  public  funds 
il  he  has  not  passed  an  examination  and  received  a  certificate  to 
teach;  and  no  school  district  shall  be  allowed  any  portion  of  the  fund 
which  does  not  keep  up  a  regular  school  at  least  three  months  in  the 
year. 

§  ii.  [Method  of  collecting  the  school  tax.]  .... 

The  above  embodies  the  principal  changes  which  the  convention 
thought  best  to  attempt  at  the  present  session;  and  in  conformity 
with  the  instructions  of  the  conventions,  we  would  ask  permission 
to  lay  before  your  honorable  bodies  some  of  the  reasons  why  a  change 
of  system  is  desired,  and  some  arguments  in  favor  of  the  above  plan. 


364     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Public  welfare  affected  by  education. — Education  is  a  measure, 
not  merely  affecting  individual  welfare,  but  one  in  which  the  public 
— the  State — is  concerned.  Were  the  consequences  of  its  neglect 
or  attention  confined  entirely  to  individuals  as  they  should  be  unedu- 
cated or  educated,  it  might  be  questionable  whether  society  could 
rightly  interfere  in  its  direction.  But  it  is  far  otherwise 

Again,  hi  our  social  organization  we  have  submitted  ourselves 
to  be  governed  upon  republican  principles.  By  our  votes  we  elect 
our  rulers,  and  the  vote  of  one  counts  equally  with  that  of  any  other. 
Howsoever  important,  then,  a  good  government  may  be,  it  is  not 
more  so  than  that  we  have  good  voters.  The  former  necessarily 
depends  upon  the  latter 

Change  of  present  system  necessary. — That  our  present  school 
laws  are  insufficient  to  accomplish  the  objects  of  their  enactment, 
requires  no  argument  to  prove.  Our  schools  evidently  are  not  what 
they  should  be.  There  is  a  listless  apathy  concerning  them,  more 
to  be  deprecated  than  fiery  opposition,  reigning  almost  supreme 
throughout  the  State.  We  need  the  adoption  of  some  measures  that 
shall  arouse  us  from  this  death-like  stupor,  that  shall  infuse  vigor 
into  the  frame,  and  induce  to  healthy,  steady,  persevering  action. 
By  some  means  the  people  must  be  made  to  feel  that  their  most  vital 
interests  are  at  hazard,  and  that  no  slight  efforts  will  suffice  to  secure 
them 

Illinois  is  peculiarly  situated,  and  in  the  minor  details  of  a  system, 
we  must  depend  mainly  upon  our  own  experience,  and  the  knowledge 
of  our  own  condition  and  necessities.  Here  we  can  find  little  amongst 
the  systems  of  the  old  States  to  profit  us.  We  have  township  as  well 
as  State  funds,  for  the  use  and  preservation  of  which  we  are  to  pro- 
vide; there  are  the  towns  and  the  villages;  the  sparse  settlements 
of  the  prairies;  the  scattered  ones  along  the  edges  of  large  groves; 
the  comparatively  thick  ones  around  small  groves,  often  embracing 
parts  of  several  townships; — all  these  varied  circumstances,  with 
numerous  others,  are  to  be  considered,  and  there  is  little  in  the  old 
States  of  like  character 

Taxation  for  the  support  of  schools. — We  come  now  to  consider, 
finally,  the  one  great  requisite  of  the  proposed  plan — taxation.  Each 
of  the  other  parts  are  considered  essential,  yet  they  are  but  machinery 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE    365 

to  work  this  result.  We  come  out  frankly  and  boldly,  and  acknowl- 
edge the  whole  system — every  effort,  is  intended  only  as  a  means  of 
allurement  to  draw  the  people  into  the  grasp  of  this  most  awful 
monster — a  school  tax. 

But  start  not  back  in  alarm.  After  all,  he  may  not  be  so  terrible 
as  some  have  perhaps  imagined.  Used  with  skill  and  judgment,  no 
other  power  can  accomplish  what  he  will;  no  other  can  work  such 
changes  in  your  common  schools,  and  it  is  vain  that  we  attempt  to 
dispense  with  his  services.  All  experience  throughout  the  Union  is 
in  favor  of  his  employment.  We  do  not,  however,  propose  coercing 
any  to  employ  him  who  prefer  to  let  him  alone.  All  we  ask  is,  to 
give  those  permission  to  use  him  who  are  so  inclined;  and  others, 
when  they  witness  his  subordination,  and  power  to  work  for  the  cause 
of  education,  will  doubtless  desire  themselves  to  try  his  services. 

School  tax  necessary  and  right. — We  believe  our  former  position, 
that  education  is  a  public  benefit,  and  indispensable  to  the  welfare 
of  the  State,  was  sustained.  It  will  also  be  granted,  that  parents  and 
guardians  of  numerous  children  throughout  the  State,  cannot  afford 
them  the  means  of  education,  and  whatever  instruction  they  may 
receive,  must  be  paid  for  by  others.  That  the  State  appropriation 
is  sufficient,  no  one  will  contend Why,  it  will  not  pay  inci- 
dental expenses,  let  alone  the  building  and  repairing  of  the  school 
house  and  the  teacher's  salary. 

To  pay  for  schooling  the  poor. — And  will  it  be  contended  that  all 
the  balance  shall  be  supplied  by  those  sending  to  school?  In  this 
event  poor  parents  must  keep  their  children  at  home,  or  they  must 
be  exempted  by  law,  and  payment  be  forced  from  others  sending  to 
schools.  The  first,  it  is  the  effort  of  all  to  avoid,  and  the  latter  is 
most  inexpedient  and  unjust. 

We  acknowledge  there  is  a  private — individual — as  well  as  public 
benefit  derived  from  education,  and  all  who  are  able  should,  there- 
fore, be  made  to  pay  for  it.  But  the  expense  of  educating  all  the 
poor  children;  who  shall  pay  for  this  ?  A  large  portion  of  the  popu- 
lation have  just  means  sufficient  to  send  their  own  children  to  school; 
and  because  they  desire  to  educate  them  to  the  best  of  their  ability, 
shall  they  be  ground  to  the  dust  by  being  made  to  pay  for  the  instruc- 


366     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

tion  of  their  neighbor's  children  ?  Many,  besides  needing  the  serv- 
ices of  their  children  in  daily  labor,  know  not  how  to  incur  the 
expense  of  schooling;  shall  they  be  compelled  to  keep  their  children 
at  home  by  being  informed  if  they  send,  they  must  not  only  foot  the 
bill  for  their  own  children  but  the  more  they  send,  the  more  they 
must  pay  for  others  ?  Manifestly  it  is  inexpedient. 

If  education  be  a  public  good,  and  there  are  those  who  must  be 
educated  at  the  expense  of  others,  the  expense  should  fall  where  it 
belongs — upon  the  public.  It  is  wrong  to  make  a  portion  of  the 
people,  no  more  able  than  others,  pay  for  what  is  acknowledged  to 
be  for  the  good  of  all.  Education  is  no  exception  to  other  public 
benefits.  It  inures,  to  be  sure,  to  individual  advantage,  and  what 
measure  of  general  utility  does  not  ?  Then  let  the  expense  for  this, 
as  for  other  public  objects,  fall  where  it  belongs — upon  the  property 
throughout  the  State.  Any  other  method  of  compelling  support  is 
unequal — most  unjust 

A  school  tax  expedient  in  Illinois. — The  long  continuance  of  this 
method  for  supporting  schools  in  many  States;  their  warm  com- 
mendations of  it;  and  above  all,  the  excellence  of  their  common 
schools,  where  they  are  wholly  or  partially  supported  by  a  tax;  speaks 
to  us  in  its  favor  in  the  strong  language  of  experience.  There  remains 
then,  nothing  for  Illinois  to  do,  but  to  adopt  the  practice.  If  a  school 
tax  be  right  and  necessary,  it  would  seem  the  people  should  be 
required  to  raise  one,  and  the  legislature  should  trust  to  the  good 
sense  and  honesty  of  the  people  to  sustain  them  in  enforcing  it 

A  majority  vote  should  decide. — At  the  last  session  of  the  Legis- 
lature, something  of  this  character  was  introduced;  but  it  was  pro- 
posed to  require  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  the  people  of  a  township  to 
levy  a  school  tax.  We  do  most  earnestly  pray  your  honorable  bodies, 
to  let  the  decision  rest  with  a  majority  of  the  votes  cast.  Why 
should  there  be  any  fear  of  abuse  under  the  law  ?  Certainly  there  is 
no  danger  of  having  too  good  schools;  that  too  much  will  be  paid  to 
teachers;  or  that  money  will  be  squandered  by  those  who  themselves 
pay  it.  To  require  a  two-thirds  vote  looks  very  much  as  though  one 
or  all  of  these  results  were  to  be  feared;  and  even  should  the  event, 
in  an  occasional  instance,  prove  the  apprehension  to  have  been  well 
grounded,  is  it  not  probable  that  ten  townships  or  districts  would 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE    367 

suffer  from  lack  of  means  to  support  their  schools,  where  one  would 
suffer  from  a  super-abundance  that  had  been  raised  by  a  tax  ?  The 
people  generally  are  not  so  fond  of  paying  large  sums  for  school  pur- 
poses, that  any  great  restraint  need  be  cast  around  them.  In  other 
public  measures,  it  is  considered  safe  to  trust  to  a  majority  to  manage; 
and  we  can  see  no  great  danger  in  education,  or  of  its  too  rapid  pro- 
motion, that  it  should  be  singled  out  to  be  used  with  caution 

The  more  this  subject  of  common  school  instruction  is  dwelt  upon, 
the  more  transcendingly  important  does  it  appear.  Never  can  more 
be  done  for  it,  than  its  due — never  can  it  be  estimated  above  its 
worth;  and  it  is  a  source  of  the  highest  gratification  to  labor  for  its 

furtherance The  subject  is  committed  to  your  honorable 

bodies  with  the  fullest  confidence  that  it  will  receive  at  your  hands, 
the  attention  it  merits;  and  that  such  measures  will  be  adopted,  as 
in  your  united  wisdom  will  appear  best  calculated  to  promote  the 
object  of  all  objects — the  education  of  the  people. 

While  we  rejoice  in  the  republican  motto,  "Let  the  people  rule," 
shall  we  ever  forget  that  intelligence  and  virtue  must  be  the  actuating 
principles  of  our  government  ?  What  but  these  constitute  the  base 
of  the  entire  fabric  of  our  republican  institutions  ?  .  .  .  .  Even  now 
one-seventeenth  part  of  our  population  over  twenty  years  of  age,  can 
neither  read  nor  write Let  it  come  home  to  us,  that  the  dis- 
trict school  supplies  the  means — the  only  means — of  qualifying  at 
least  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  children  of  our  State,  to  exercise  the 
right  of  suffrage;  that  this  is  the  means — the  only  means — by  which 
nineteen-twentieths  of  the  men — yes,  and  the  wives  and  mothers  too 
— soon  to  be  on  the  stage  of  action,  are  to  be  prepared  for  discharging 
the  high  and  responsible  duties  of  life. 

Our  object  is  "not  to  rear  a  small  number  of  individuals,  who 
may  be  regarded  as  prodigies  in  an  ignorant  and  admiring  age; 
but  to  diffuse  as  widely  as  possible  that  degree  of  cultivation,  which 
may  enable  the  bulk  of  the  people  to  possess  all  the  intellectual  and 
moral  improvement  of  which  their  nature  is  susceptible."  It  is  too 
true  that  schooling  does  not  always  accomplish  this;  that  men  do 
not  become  educated  according  to  their  attendance  upon  school. 
Occasionally  we  find  one  who  signs  a  deed  with  his  mark,  better 
educated,  better  qualified  to  perform  the  duties  of  a  man  and  citizen 


368     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

than  another  who  passed  all  the  days  of  his  boyhood  and  youth  at 
the  school  house,  academy  or  college.  But  these  instances  are  only 
exceptions  to  the  general  rule.  No  father,  worthy  of  the  name,  would 
desire  to  try  the  experiment  with  his  son.  The  mechanical  operations 
of  reading  and  writing,  and  instructions  in  elementary  branches  of 
knowledge,  will  be  imparted  to  him  as  the  ground-work  of  future 
usefulness;  and  to  acquire  them,  the  great  mass  must  resort  to  the 
district  school.  For  this  the  district  school  is  prized;  for  this  we 
should,  as  far  as  in  our  power,  compel  all  to  render  it  support  and 
countenance.  We  would,  if  possible,  have  no  school  too  good  for 
the  child  of  humble  origin;  none  too  poor  for  the  child  of  wealth  and 
affluence.  (The  Memorial  of  a  Committee  of  the  State  School 
Convention,  held  at  Peoria  in  October  last,  upon  the  subject  of  Com- 
mon School  Education,  December  7,  1844.) 

(6)  Extract  from  the  First  Message  of  Governor  Ford  to  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  1844 

The  subject  of  common  school  education  must  necessarily  attract 
your  attention.  It  is  one  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  well  being 
of  the  people;  the  due  provision  for  which  is  essential  to  the  per- 
petuity of  enlightened  republicanism,  and  absolutely  necessary  to 
a  proper  and  just  administration  of  our  democratic  institutions.  No 
system  on  this  subject  has  yet  been  adopted,  which  has  been  satis- 
factory to  the  people;  or  which  has  been  executed  with  efficiency  in 
all  parts  of  the  State.  But  little  statistical  or  other  information  of 
the  actual  operation  of  existing  laws  on  this  subject,  has  yet  been 
collected  to  enable  the  General  Assembly  to  legislate  upon  it  with  an 
enlightened  judgment.  Some  means  ought  to  be  adopted,  to  collect 
this  information;  and  I  can  think  of  none  better  than  the  appoint- 
ment by  your  honorable  bodies  of  an  agent,  at  once  faithful  and  com- 
petent to  the  task;  whose  duty  it  would  be  to  travel  into  every 
country,  and  if  possible  every  neighborhood;  and  by  a  careful 
inspection  and  examination,  collect  this  information  for  the  use  of 
the  Legislature ;  and  by  lectures  and  every  other  means  in  his  power, 
endeavor  to  impress  upon  the  people  the  overwhelming  importance 
of  the  education  of  their  children.  Such  an  agent  ought  to  be  a  rare 
man;  endowed  with  talents,  zeal,  and  discretion  of  the  highest  order. 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE    369 

Money  expended  on  such  an  agency,  if  ably,  faithfully  and  zealously 
executed,  would  be  approved  by  the  people,  as  being  more  for  their 
benefit,  than  any  other  appropriation  whatever.  And  if  taxed  for 
it,  they  would  feel  that  they  had  been  taxed  for  a  purpose  of  the 
highest  utility. 

(7)  Extracts  from  the  Report  of  the  First  State  Superintendent 
of  Common  Schools  to  the  General  Assembly,  1847 

The  fact  of  only  fifty-seven  counties  having  complied  with  the 
request  contained  in  my  circular  of  the  third  of  September,  shows 
a  most  lamentable  apathy  and  want  of  interest  in  the  cause  of  edu- 
cation throughout  the  State.  While  some  of  the  counties  exhibit 
a  commendable  zeal  and  interest  in  the  cause,  others  have  mani- 
fested a  most  culpable  negligence.  It  was  not  to  be  expected 
that  very  rapid  progress  would  at  first  be  made  toward  maintain- 
ing a  system  of  common  schools,  which  time  and  experience  alone 
can  perfect. 

In  our  sister  States,  where  common  schools  have,  for  years,  been 
the  objects  of  not  only  the  wise  and  fostering  care  of  legislation,  but 
have  elicited  in  their  behalf,  the  zeal  and  efforts  of  the  richest  and 
most  talented  citizens,  although  they  have  advanced  rapidly,  yet 
according  to  their  own  reports  and  official  statements  much  yet 
remains  to  be  done.  The  practical  operation  of  any  school  law  in  our 
own  State,  is  yet  to  be  tried.  Notwithstanding  our  statute  book 
has  been  encumbered  with  school  laws,  no  one  of  them  has  ever  been 
carried  into  vigorous  and  effective  operation;  and  our  people  were, 
at  the  time  the  present  law  was  enacted,  as  inexperienced  in  all  the 
details  necessary  for  the  successful  administration  of  the  law,  as  if 
the  question  had  been  presented  to  them  for  the  first  time 

It  is  the  want  of  information  on  the  subject  of  popular  education, 
that  is  the  cause  of  the  painful  apathy  which  prevails  amongst  the 
people;  a  want  of  knowledge  of  the  progress  our  sister  States  have 
made,  and  the  means  by  which  they  have  been  enabled  to  carry  their 
different  systems  into  practical  and  successful  operation 

Special  taxes. — The  84th  section  of  the  school  law,  authorizes 
the  legal  voters,  in  the  different  school  districts,  to  meet  together  and 
tax  themselves  for  school  purposes,  building  and  repairing  school 


370     TRUANCY -AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

houses,  &c.  In  the  fifty-seven  counties  from  which  I  have  received 
returns,  only  twenty-one  have  levied  this  tax. 

....  In  the  county  of  Cook  alone,  the  inhabitants — deeply 
impressed  with  the  importance  of  the  common  school  education — 
have  raised,  by  voluntary  taxation,  under  the  provision  of  the  law, 
the  large  sum  of  five  thousand  two  hundred  and  four  dollars, 
which  will  continue  and  increase  as  an  annual  tax;  and  what  has 
been  the  result  ?  Their  schools  are  in  a  most  flourishing  condition. 
They  have  erected  large  and  elegant  school  houses,  procured  com- 
petent and  accomplished  teachers,  and  have  two  thousand  and  ninety- 
five  children  in  daily  attendance  at  these  nurseries  of  learning 

The  large  property  holders  are,  in  general,  most  strongly  opposed 
to  the  assessment  of  taxes  for  school  purposes.  They  are  against  it, 
because  they  are  able  to  educate  their  own  children  without  the  aid 
of  any  public  fund,  and  are  unwilling  to  have  their  property  taxed 
for  the  education  of  the  poorer  classes  that  have  no  property  to  tax. 

(8)  Extract  from  the  Inaugural  Address  of  Governor  Matteson  to 
the  Eighteenth  General  Assembly,  1853 

I  desire  to  invite  your  particular  attention  to  the  vital  subject 
of  education.  We  have  a  mixed  population,  emigrating  from  every 
sister  state,  and  from  almost  every  clime  of  the  old  world,  and  hi  order 
to  be  most  beneficial,  our  schools  should  be  conducted  on  a  broad  and 
comprehensive  basis.  Intelligence  and  virtue  are  at  the  foundation 
of  our  system  of  government,  and  the  germs  of  these  are  best  extended 
in  our  common  schools.  There  are  many,  and  perhaps  very  just 
complaints  against  the  operation  of  the  present  school  law,  and  it 
may  well  be  doubted  whether  it  is  not  too  voluminous  and  extensive 
to  be  fully  understood  and  comprehended  by  all  those  who  are 
intrusted  with  the  direction  of  common  schools.  I  submit  to  your 
consideration  whether  the  desired  end  would  not  be  better  promoted 
by  an  entire  repeal  of  all  laws  regulating  common  schools,  and  the 
adoption  of  a  simple  system,  plain  in  its  provisions,  supported  by 
tax  upon  property,  when  the  school  fund  is  not  sufficient  for  such 
purpose,  and  made  free  to  all  alike.  I  desire  to  see  a  system  by 
which  every  child,  whatever  its  condition  or  parentage,  may  have  an 
opportunity  to  obtain  an  education  equal  with  the  most  affluent  of 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE    371 

our  state — such  as  will  fit  them  for  any  grade  or  condition  of  life. 
Our  central  position,  our  great  commercial  connections,  our  internal 
wealth,  everything  about  us  indicate  for  us  a  destiny  of  which  any 
people  might  well  be  proud,  but  the  most  sacred  duty  demands  of 
us  that  the  rising  generation  be  fitted  in  their  intellectual  capacity  to 
give  proper  direction  to  these  great  interests.  Should  such  modifi- 
cation of  our  school  law  be  considered  by  the  general  assembly  to  be 
premature,  I  would  recommend  that  a  general  superintendent  of 
common  schools  be  authorized,  with  such  compensation  as  would 
command  the  best  talent  of  our  state,  whose  duty  it  should  be  to 
visit  every  school  district  in  the  state,  having  power  to  cause  such 
organization,  and  the  uniform  use  of  such  books  as  are  best  adapted 
to  the  improvement  of  the  pupils. 

(p)  Extract  from  the  Biennial  Report  of  the  State  Superintendent 
of  Common  Schools  to  the  Eighteenth  General  Assembly,  1853 

The  sum  raised  by  ad  valorem  tax,  for  the  support  of  schools  in 

forty-six  counties  is  reported  to  be  $51,101.14 In  twenty 

counties  out  of  seventy-four,  no  such  tax  was  levied,  and  the  com- 
missioners of  eight  counties,  in  consequence  of  the  default  of  township 
treasurers,  were  able  to  consider  nothing  relative  thereto. 

In  connection  with  this  subject  I  take  occasion  to  remark,  that 
in  many  parts  of  the  state,  the  question  of  providing  by  taxation  for 

a  system  of  Free  Schools,  is  beginning  to  be  agitated While 

many  weighty  reasons  are  urged  in  support  of  such  a  policy,  there 
will  be  found  those  who  regard  it  as  a  scheme  of  state  dictation, 
wholly  at  war  with  the  rights  of  individuals,  and  oppressive  in  exact- 
ing contributions  from  such  as  are  unable  or  unwilling,  from  various 
motives,  to  participate  in  its  advantages 

Under  the  law  as  it  now  stands,  a  majority  of  the  legal  voters  of 
districts,  at  any  meeting  properly  convened,  have  it  in  their  power, 
by  a  majority  of  voters,  to  levy  a  tax  for  the  support  of  schools,  thus 
enabling  them,  if  they  see  proper,  to  avail  themselves  of  all  the 
advantages  of  free  schools.  I  am  not  aware  that  in  a  single  instance 
this  has  been  done,  nor  can  any  motive  be  assigned  for  the  action  of 
the  people  in  this  respect,  unless  it  grow  out  of  a  preference  for  the 
system  which  now  prevails 


372     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

The  entire  number  of  common  schools  in  operation  in  the  state 
in  the  course  of  the  past  year  is  estimated  at  seven  thousand  and 
thirty-one.  Of  the  schools  reported,  two  thousand  three  hundred  and 
ninety-seven  were  taught  by  male  teachers,  and  the  balance  by 
females.  The  number  of  female  teachers  employed  seem  to  be 
steadily  increasing,  and  there  can  be  but  little  doubt  that  in  districts 
where  pupils  are  mostly  new  beginners  they  are  better  adapted  to 
guide  the  youthful  mind  than  instructors  of  the  rougher  and  sterner 
sex 

The  census  of  1850  shows  the  number  of  white  children  in  the 
state  to  be  496,595.  In  the  72  counties  from  which  reports  are 
furnished,  the  number  for  the  past  year  is  stated,  on  the  authority  of 
township  treasurers,  to  be  361,954.  Of  this  number  139,255  are 
represented  as  having  been  in  attendance  at  the  common  schools. 

(ro)  Extracts  from  the  Biennial  Report  of  the  State  Superintendent 

of  Public  Instruction  to  the  Nineteenth  General 

Assembly,  1855 

I  propose,  in  the  next  place,  to  show  that  it  is  both  the  duty  and 
the  interest  of  the  state  to  provide  for  the  education  of  her  children. 

In  the  preamble  to  our  state  constitution  we  acknowledge  our- 
selves to  be  "grateful  to  Almighty  God  for  the  civil  and  religious 
liberty  which  we  have  been  permitted  to  enjoy,  and  looking  to  Him 
for  a  blessing  on  our  endeavors  to  secure  and  transmit  the  same 
unimpaired  to  succeeding  generations,  and,  in  order  to  form  a  more 
perfect  government,  establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquillity, 
provide  for  the  common  defence,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and 
secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  posterity,"  &c. 

Were  the  inquiry  now  to  be  urged,  how  are  these  blessings  best 
secured  ?  I  am  persuaded  that  the  unanimous  answer  would  be,  by 
diffusing  among  the  people  knowledge  and  virtue.  To  secure  the 
great  ends  of  the  constitution,  it  is  important  that  the  children  in  our 
state  be  trained  so  as  to  fully  comprehend  the  principles  of  our  con- 
stitution and  the  true  basis  of  civil  and  religious  liberty 

And  to  make  it  sure,  it  must  not  be  left  to  chance,  nor  to  private 
enterprise:  it  must  be  absolutely  secured,  by  timely  and  judicious 
legislation.  But  parsimonious  men  will  talk  of  economy,  and  of 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE    373 

the  necessity  of  retrenchment.  It  is  cheaper  to  sustain  schools  than 
poor  houses,  and  courts,  and  prisons;  and  as  certainly  as  education 
is  neglected,  ignorance  and  vice,  and  pauperism  and  prisons,  must 
draw  heavily  upon  our  treasury.  The  only  prevention  of  these  evils 
is  in  intellectual  and  moral  expansion.  We  hesitate  not,  for  the 
common  defence,  to  invest  money  for  the  building  of  forts,  for  the 
manufacture  of  arms,  the  training  of  soldiers,  for  military  academies, 
and  the  general  discipline  and  munitions  of  war.  How  much  more 
important  is  it  to  educate  the  citizen,  and  to  instruct  the  children  of 
the  citizen  in  the  arts  of  peace  and  the  principles  of  justice,  that  they 

may  preserve  the  one  and  administer  the  other To  make 

education  general,  you  must  make  tuition  free,  still,  however,  sus- 
taining the  schools,  in  some  measure,  out  of  the  property  of  the 
country,  by  taxation 

I  cannot  too  strongly  urge  the  importance  of  making  education 
free,  alike  to  the  rich  and  the  poor.  The  system  which  provides  for 
the  education  only  of  the  poor  is  necessarily  unsuccessful.  It  has 
ever  been,  and  ever  will  be,  regarded  as  a  part  of  the  pauper  system; 
and  in  a  country  like  ours  few  will  consent  to  appear  on  the  pauper 
list. 

The  only  way  to  bring  in  the  children  of  the  poor  is  to  bring 
them  in  on  the  same  footing,  and  on  terms  of  equality  with  those  of 
the  rich.  Make  the  school-room  just  as  free  and  as  much  common 
property  as  our  public  highways,  or  the  air  we  breathe.  Let  the 
poorest  child  feel  that  he  has  just  as  much  right  to  be  there  as  has  the 
child  of  the  millionaire,  and  that  the  only  distinction  known  is  that 
of  merit,  and  then  you  will  reach  the  poor,  while  no  injury  will  be 
done  to  the  rich.  This  is,  in  fact,  the  only  plan  which  is  properly  in 
keeping  with  our  republican  institutions.  It  is  predicated  on  the 
maxim,  that  "all  men  are  born  free  and  equal";  which  equality  is 
preserved  until  destroyed  by  the  varying  degrees  of  personal  merit. 
It  commends  itself  to  our  common  sense  of  justice,  and  must,  ulti- 
mately, command  the  respect  of  all  classes  of  the  people 

Upon  the  whole,  I  am  fully  persuaded  that  the  free  schools,  as 
a  general  thing,  are  better  than  even  the  most  select  private  ones. 
There  are  more  people  interested  in  them,  and  there  is  a  public  spirit 
at  work  in  their  support.  Even  small  children  seem  to  realize  that 


374     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

through  the  schools  they  are  brought  into  connection  with  the  com- 
monwealth; they  appreciate  their  high  position,  and  they  are  proud 
to  honor  the  institution  which  has  elevated  them.  The  system  has 
met  with  general  approval  in  every  state  where  it  has  been  tried. 
....  At  this  tune,  every  free  state,  except  one,  and  I  regret  to  say 
that  one  is  Illinois,  has  adopted  it.  Several  states  have  even  incor- 
porated in  their  constitutions  provision  for  the  support  of  schools. 
The  slave  states  are  waking  up  on  the  subject,  and  are  adopting 
efficient  systems  of  common  school  education.  The  general  govern- 
ment has  fully  recognized  the  principle,  by  liberal  donations  of  lands 
in  all  the  townships  of  the  new  states,  for  free  education.  In  short, 
the  free  school  system  may  now  be  said  to  have  the  national  sanction, 
and  is  looked  to  with  admiration  from  the  Old  World,  many  states 
of  which  have  even  adopted  it.  Surely,  surely,  our  state  will  no 
longer  neglect  it! 

The  plan  which  I  propose  is,  first  of  all,  to  simplify  our  school 
law,  so  that  it  may  be  understood  by  all.  The  prominent  feature  of 
the  system  which  I  have  thought  proper  to  recommend,  recognizing 
the  first  principle,  that  education  should  be  supported  by  a  tax  on 
property,  gives  to  every  child  of  the  state  a  right  to  be  educated,  and 
to  all  an  equal  right.  This  principle  of  equality  of  right  is  made 
prominent.  Its  development  necessarily  requires  that  the  proceeds 
of  the  school  fund  be  so  distributed  as  to  afford  equal  facilities  to  all. 
If  the  distribution  should  be  based  entirely  on  population,  it  would 
give  to  the  less  populous  counties  and  districts  a  comparatively 
small  amount  of  money,  while  at  the  same  time  there  is  but  little 
difference  between  the  expense  of  a  large  and  a  small  school  of  the 
same  grade.  In  the  country,  or  less  populous  districts,  the  property 
would  have  to  bear  much  heavier  taxation  for  the  support  of  the 
schools,  while  in  large  cities  and  thickly  settled  districts,  the  assess- 
ment would  be  far  less;  or,  if  the  taxation  were  uniform,  the  schools 
then  would  be  more  than  supported.  Either  the  first  principle  would 
have  to  be  abandoned,  or  the  property  in  some  districts  would  have 
to  contribute  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  per  cent  more  than  in  others. 
If  the  principle  be  correct,  that  the  property  of  the  state  should  edu- 
cate the  children  of  the  state,  on  account  of  the  security  and  addi- 
tional value  which  education  gives  to  property,  and  the  permanency 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE    375 

and  security  which  it  insures  to  our  civil,  social,  and  religious  insti- 
tutions, there  is  no  reason  why  the  burthen  should  not  be  equal 

TOTALS  FOR  COUNTIES  FOR  1854 
(79  counties  reported;  21  counties  not  reported) 

Amount  of  school  sales $42,972 . 75 

Quantity  of  unsold  school  land  (acres) 48,313 

No.  schools  taught 4,21 1 

No.  schools  taughL  by  males '     2,491 

No.  schools  taught  by  females i,SS5 

No.  schools  employing  males  and  females  at  same  tune 115 

No.  schools  employing  males  and  females  at  different  periods  1,644 

Highest  number  of  children  taught 135,521 

Average  number  who  have  attended  school 80,681 

No.  white  children  under  21  years  of  age 401,460 

No.  white  children  between  the  ages  of  5  and  21 200,178 

Average  no.  months  in  year  in  which  school  has  been  taught  6 
No.  schools  in  which  the  average  number  of  children  taught  is 

under  thirty 2,I7S 

Average  number  of  scholars  in  each  school 30 

Average  monthly  compensation  of  male  teachers $25 .00 

Average  monthly  compensation  of  female  teachers $12.00 

(n)  Extracts  from  the  Biennial  Report  of  the  State  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction,  1867-68 

The  larger  portion  of  the  aggregate  number  of  colored  people  in 
the  State  are  dispersed  through  the  different  counties  and  school  dis- 
tricts, in  small  groups  of  one,  two,  or  three  families,  not  enough  to 
maintain  separate  schools  for  themselves,  even  with  the  help  of  the 
pittance  paid  for  school  taxes  by  such  of  them  as  are  property  holders. 
This  whole  dispersed  class  of  our  colored  population  are  without  the 
means  of  a  common  school  education  for  their  children;  the  law  does 
not  contemplate  their  co-attendance  with  white  children,  and  they 
are  without  recourse  of  any  kind.  I  think  it  safe  to  say  that  at  least 
one-half  of  the  six  thousand  colored  children,  between  the  ages  of 
six  and  twenty-one,  are  in  this  helpless  condition  in  respect  to 
schools 


376     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

The  question  of  compulsory  attendance  has  been  widely  dis- 
cussed in  all  parts  of  the  country  during  the  past  two  years.  While 
there  may  be  doubts  as  to  whether  that  would  be  the  best  remedy 
for  us,  all  things  considered,  those  doubts  do  not,  in  my  estimation, 
attach  to  the  question  of  legal  competency,  but  only  to  that  of  expe- 
diency. Every  State  school  system  must  of  necessity  rest  down  at 
some  points  upon  the  idea  of  compulsion — of  the  supreme  authority 
of  a  commonwealth  to  do  what  is  deemed  needful  for  the  well-being 
of  the  body  politic.  The  primary  maxim  upon  which  every  free 
school  law  is  grounded  and  defended,  and  which  has  become  a  part 
of  the  settled  convictions  of  the  American  people — that  a  State  has 
a  just  moral  claim  upon  so  much  of  the  property  of  the  people  as  may 
be  required  to  educate  its  children  and  fit  them  for  usefulness 
as  good  citizens — involves  the  idea  of  compulsion  in  the  last  resort. 
The  State  two  mill  tax,  which  is  the  legitimate  fruitage  of  that  maxim, 
is  collected  from  all  alike,  whether  willing  or  unwilling.  Those-  who 
refuse  to  pay  the  tax  are  compelled  to  pay  it;  there  is  compulsory 
school-tax  paying  all  over  the  State.  And  the  power  that  justly 
demands  and  enforces,  in  virtue  of  its  benevolent  care  and  sovereignty, 
the  payment  of  a  tax  for  the  noble  purpose  of  educating  and  uplifting 
the  people,  may  surely  provide  that  the  end  sought  shall  not  fail  of 
attainment  through  the  indifference  or  perverseness  of  others.  The 
hand  that  forcibly  takes  the  tax-money  from  the  pocket  of  an  unwill- 
ing non-resident,  to  support  a  school  hi  a  distant  district  in  which  he 
has  no  personal  interest,  is  at  least  as  rough  and  arbitrary  as  would 
be  the  hand  that  forcibly  leads  the  children  to  the  doors  of  the  school- 
room. If  the  former  act  is  right,  though  the  very  essence  of  compul- 
sion, how  can  the  latter  be  wrong  ?  Indeed,  all  general  laws,  both 
state  and  national,  involve  and  imply  the  right  of  compulsion,  in  the 
last  resort,  and  could  not  be  otherwise  executed.  So  far,  therefore, 
as  the  question  of  the  constitutional  right  and  competency  of  a  State 
to  pass  a  school  law  that  shall  be  compulsory  in  regard  to  attendance, 
is  concerned,  it  seems  to  me  there  can  be  no  doubt.  If  the  funda- 
mental principle  is  conceded,  the  rest  is  a  logical  sequence — if  a  State 
may  enact  a  general  free  school  law,  it  may  see  that  its  supreme  pur- 
pose is  not  defeated.  And  what  is  that  purpose  but  the  education  of 
all  the  children  between  the  prescribed  ages  ?  and  how  can  this  be 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE    377 

if  they  do  not  attend?  Regarded  from  this  stand-point,  may  not 
the  more  rational  question  be:  Has  the  State  a  right  to  stop  short  of 
compulsory  attendance  ?  to  leave  it  optional  with  the  very  persons  to 
be  benefited,  whether,  after  all,  the  whole  system  shall  be  a  success  or 
a  failure  ?  Hence,  the  question  of  compulsory  attendance  is  not  one 
of  jurisdiction  or  competency  on  the  part  of  the  State,  but  of  expe- 
diency only.  It  may  be  that  a  general  compulsory  law  would  not 
work  well  in  a  country  and  people  like  ours.  It  will  certainly  be 
a  grander  success  if  we  can  make  the  schools  so  good,  so  attractive 
and  pleasant,  that  all  will  seek  them  and  be  drawn  to  them  by  a  higher 
and  nobler  compulsion — the  love  of  knowledge,  of  improvement,  of 
culture,  of  country  and  of  God.  But  in  whatever  aspect  it  is  con- 
sidered, and  whatsoever  remedy  may  be  the  best,  absenteeism  is  an 
evil  of  alarming  magnitude,  and  must  continue  to  receive  the  earnest 
attention  of  the  friends  of  public  education,  until  attendance  upon 
the  public  schools  shall  be  universal,  and  the  system  shall  secure 
the  maximum  amount  of  good  of  which  it  is  capable. 

(12)  Extracts  from  the  Biennial  Report  of  the  State  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction,  1869-70 

Absenteeism  in  i86p. — Attention  has  been  called  to  this  evil  in 
former  reports.  The  continuance  and  magnitude  of  it,  demand, 
however,  a  continued  consideration.  It  is  confessedly  the  great 
drawback  upon  our  free  school  system;  the  problem  of  its  extinction 
remains,  in  some  important  respects,  the  most  perplexing,  as  well  as 
the  most  weighty  we  have  to  deal  with. 

Extent  of  the  evil. — .  .  .  .  One  out  of  every  five  or  six  not  enrolled 
at  all,  not  in  school  so  much  as  one  day;  but  hundreds,  yes,  thousands, 
who  were  enrolled,  but  who  were  not  present  more  than  ten  days, 
twenty  days,  a  month — and  so  upward — but  falling  short,  in  all 
degrees,  of  the  maximum,  the  six  and  a  half  months  the  schools  were 
open.  Absence,  truancy,  and  tardiness,  are  to  be  reckoned  all  three 
together  to  get  at  the  real  amount  of  failure.  The  complete  statistics 
show  that  while  about  nineteen  out  of  every  hundred  due  there,  have 
not  appeared  at  school  at  all,  of  those  who  did  appear,  not  more  than 
about  sixty-five  out  of  the  hundred  have  been  in  regular  daily  attend- 
ance during  the  average  time  the  schools  were  open.  Of  children 


378     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

due  at  school,  therefore — that  is  to  say,  of  all  in  the  State  between  the 
ages  of  six  and  twenty-one — not  more  than  forty  to  forty-five  per 
cent,  have  been  in  regular  daily  attendance  during  the  school  time 
provided  for  them  by  the  State 

Its  cause. — But,  having  school  privileges,  many  of  those  who 
need  them  most,  hold  school  opportunities  at  light  value,  and  make 
but  slightest  use  of  them.  Then,  many  parents  lack  energy  and 
enterprise  sufficient  even  to  keep  their  children  at  school.  Some, 
who  are  abundantly  able  to  do  so,  fail  to  provide  their  children  with 
clothing  suitable  to  appear  at  school  in.  Others  have  lost  control  of 
their  children;  not  a  few  boys  and  girls  within  our  State  are  not 
in  school  simply  because  they  won't  go,  and  the  parents  have  lost 
authority  to  make  them  go.  Very  large  numbers  are  kept  at  home 
for  their  services  at  labor;  in  shops  and  factories,  upon  the  farm  and 
in  the  house 

The  cure. — It  is  doubtful  whether  any  thorough  preventive  of 
this  evil  will  be  found  short  of  State  compulsion.  Upon  the  com- 
petency of  the  State  to  enact  laws  which  would  make  a  certain  amount 
of  attendance  at  school  compulsory,  and  upon  the  expediency  of  so 
doing,  remark  was  made  in  my  last  report.  The  position  then 
assumed,  and  which  is  still  believed  to  be  irrefutable,  was,  that  it  is 
competent  for  a  State  to  provide,  by  appropriate  enactments,  that 
all  persons  of  suitable  age,  and  of  proper  mental  and  physical  ability, 
shall  attend  the  public  schools  for  a  certain  specified  period,  unless 
otherwise  educated.  The  States  of  Missouri,  Nevada,  Arkansas, 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Virginia,  and  I  think  two  or  three 
others,  have  already  prepared  the  way  for  the  ultimate  arrest  by 
legislative  interposition,  of  the  evils  of  voluntary  absenteeism,  and 
truancy,  by  incorporating  the  necessary  provisions  into  their  respect- 
ive State  Constitutions.  In  those  of  Arkansas  and  South  Carolina, 
the  enactment  of  such  laws  is  peremptorily  required,  while  in  the 
organic  laws  of  the  other  States  named,  the  provisions  on  the  subject 
are  only  permissive 

The  theory  is  that  a  State  may  of  right  do  whatever  is  essential, 
or  which  it  believes  to  be  essential  to  its  own  preservation,  welfare 
and  perpetuity;  that  the  safety  and  continuance  of  a  republican 
government  requires  the  education  of  the  whole  body  of  the  people; 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE    379 

and  hence  that  a  State  may  rightfully  do  whatever  may  be  found 
really  necessary  to  secure  that  end.  This  is  the  rock  upon  which 
the  whole  American  doctrine  of  free  public  education  by  State  law, 
rests  down,  firmly  and  immovably.  And  upon  the  self-same  founda- 
tion, in  virtue  of  the  same  high  moral  and  political  necessity,  and  of 
strictest  logical  sequence,  abides  the  right  of  providing  for  compul- 
sory attendance,  in  the  last  resort To  provide,  at  great 

expense,  by  the  supreme  authority  of  the  State,  for  the  free  edu- 
cation of  all  the  youth  of  the  State,  and  at  the  same  time  leave  all  at 
liberty  to  reject  what  is  thus  provided,  is  to  allow  a  self-destructive 
principle  to  lurk  in  the  very  citadel  of  the  whole  system. 

But  until  we  reach  the  point  where  such  a  law  can  be  passed  and 
sustained,  and,  indeed,  as  a  means  either  of  reaching  it,  or  of  doing 
what  would  be  better — of  making  such  a  law  unnecessary — the  only 
available  remedy  against  this  evil  will  be  the  formation  of  a  right 
public  opinion  touching  this  whole  matter  of  schools,  and  of  regular, 
punctual  school-attendance 

Let  every  voice  and  every  agency,  that  promises  good,  be  enlisted, 
and  employed  in  speaking  and  in  acting  upon  this  great  subject,  till 
it  is  everywhere  considered  the  basest  of  crimes,  to  be  a  parent,  and 
then  deliberately  or  thoughtlessly  to  deprive  the  child  of  the  blessed 
boon  of  obtaining  all  the  free  knowledge  he  can  acquire;  or,  to  be  a 
citizen,  and  connive  at  or  allow  a  child  to  live  in  this  intelligent  age, 
without  being,  if  no  other  way  offers,  compelled  to  learn  so  much  of 
truth  as  shall  raise  him  above  the  danger  and  the  suspicion  of  bar- 
barism  

The  free  school  system  in  Illinois First  of  all  should  be 

mentioned  the  great  fact  that  the  free  school  system  of  Illinois  has 
at  last  been  firmly  entrenched  in  the  organic  law  of  the  State.  Prior 
to  the  adoption  of  the  new  constitution,  the  whole  system,  with  its 
myriad  ramifications,  its  vast  accumulations  of  funds  and  property, 
and  its  untold  blessings  to  the  people  of  the  present  and  the  future, 
had  no  other  foundation  than  a  simple  act  of  the  Legislature 

The  formal  recognition  in  the  fundamental  law  of  the  claims  of 
free  popular  education  was  due  to  the  dignity  of  the  State  itself. 
Illinois  could  not  longer  have  afforded  to  remain  the  only  free  Ameri- 
can State  which  deemed  the  subject  of  public  education  unworthy 


380     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

a  place  in  her  Constitution If  any  thing  is  settled  by  the 

conduct  of  nations,  the  teachings  of  experience,  the  logic  of  events, 
and  the  sif tings  and  deductions  of  human  thought,  in  this  latter  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  this  is  settled. 

(13)  The  Educational  Rights  of  Children 

(Extract  from  the  Biennial  Report  of  the  State  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction,  1871-72) 

....  I  now  approach  the  consideration  of  another  question  of 
great  practical  moment,  one  that  is  regarded  by  many  as  "the  most 
important  school  question  of  modern  times,"  namely:  How  shall  the 
evil  of  voluntary  absenteeism  be  arrested,  and  all  the  youth  of  the 
State,  not  otherwise  educated,  be  brought  into  the  public  schools? 
In  other  words,  how  shall  the  children  of  the  State  be  protected 
against  the  wrongs  and  evils  of  illiteracy,  and  secured  in  their  edu- 
cational rights  ?  .  .  .  . 

The  subject  thus  introduced  is  now  prominently  before  the 

American  people It  is  usually  considered  under  the  form  of 

"compulsory  school  attendance" — sometimes  under  the  better  form 
of  "obligatory  education,"  and  other  equivalent  or  similar  desig- 
nations. The  essential  idea  is  the  same,  whatever  the  phraseology 
in  which  the  proposition  is  couched;  that  idea  is  expressed  in  the 
question:  What  shall  be  done  to  get  the  school  children  into  the 
schools,  and  to  arrest  the  alarming  increase  of  truancy  and  voluntary 
absenteeism  ?  But  while  the  verbal  formula  may  be  of  little  conse- 
quence, yet,  aside  from  the  ill-repute  into  which  the  other  forms  of 
statement  have  fallen,  and  the  unthinking  hostility  which  they  seem 
to  have  needlessly  invited,  they  do  not,  it  seems  to  me,  express  the 
cardinal  idea  involved,  in  the  fittest  and  most  appropriate  manner. 
They  seem,  in  some  degree,  to  misplace  the  emphasis,  laying  it  rather 
upon  the  children  than  upon  parents  and  guardians,  where  I  think 
it  more  properly  belongs.  Believing,  as  I  do,  that  the  greater  fault 
lies  against  parents  and  guardians,  for  neglecting  or  refusing  to  send 
their  children  and  wards  to  school,  and  not  against  the  latter,  for 
refusing  to  attend;  and  hence  that  the  real  gravamen  consists  in 
depriving  children  and  youth  of  their  educational  rights,  at  a  period 
when  they  can  neither  appreciate  the  loss  incurred,  nor  obtain  redress 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE     381 

for  the  wrong  inflicted — holding  this  to  be  the  juster  view  of  the 
subject,  when  law-making  power  is  invoked  in  behalf  of  these  vic- 
tims of  neglect  and  wrong,  I  would  have  the  statute  entitled,  not  an 
act  to  compel  the  attendance  of  children  at  school,  but  an  act  to 
secure  to  children  their  right  to  a  good  common  school  education 

Grounds  of  the  rights  to  education. — Are  there,  then,  such  rights, 
or  is  the  claim  a  mere  sentiment,  a  bare  assumption  ? — a  pertinent 
inquiry,  for  the  affirmation  that  there  are,  is  the  major  premise  of  the 
argument,  and  essential  to  its  strength;  rights  and  privileges  that 
do  not  exist,  cannot  be  infringed,  abridged  or  denied.  The  right  to 
the  rudiments  of  knowledge,  is  a  common,  natural  right  of  humanity; 
and,  in  this  State,  it  is  also  a  constitutional  and  legal  right 

But  I  have  said  that,  hi  this  State,  at  least  these  rights  are  also 
guaranteed  by  the  constitution,  and  established  by  law.  The  first 
section  of  the  eighth  article  of  the  organic  law  of  Illinois  declares 
that:  "The  General  Assembly  shall  provide  a  thorough  and  efficient 
system  of  free  schools,  whereby  all  the  children  of  this  State  may 
receive  a  good  common  school  education";  and  this  injunction  of  the 
constitution  is  obeyed  in  the  forty-eighth  section  of  the  school  law, 
which  declares  that  boards  of  directors,  "shall  establish  and  keep  hi 
operation,  for  at  leas-t  five  months  in  each  year,  and  longer  if  practi- 
cable, a  sufficient  number  of  free  schools  for  the  proper  accommoda- 
tion of  all  children  in  the  district  over  the  age  of  six  and  under  twenty- 
one  years,  and  shall  secure  to  all  such  children  the  right  and  opportu- 
nity to  an  equal  education  in  such  free  schools." 

In  conformity  with  these  provisions,  there  is  now  in  this  State 
a  free  school  system,  well  established,  thoroughly  organized,  and 
in  successful  operation. 

But  the  grave  question  recurs:  If  those  who  have  the  custody  and 
guardianship  of  children,  refuse  or  neglect  to  avail  themselves  of  these 
munificent  provisions — if  they  do  not,  or  will  not  send  them  to  the 
public  schools,  or  otherwise  cause  them  to  be  educated,  what  shall  be 
done  ?  I  answer,  let  such  parents  and  guardians  be  required  by  law 
to  discharge  that  duty 

Parents  and  guardians  should  be  enjoined,  by  appropriate  legis- 
lation, to  secure  for  their  children  and  wards  a  good  common  school 
education — 


382     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

I.  Because  it  is  Competent  for  the  General  Assembly  to  pass  such 
laws. 

II.  Because  it  is  Necessary  and  Expedient. 

If  these  two  propositions  can  be  established,  the  doctrine  of  legis- 
lative interposition  to  arrest  the  evils  of  non-attendance  and  truancy, 
and  to  secure  to  all  the  youth  of  the  State  the  rights  and  benefits  of 
education,  will  also  be  established 

The  idea  of  free  schools,  established  and  supported  by  the  State, 
was  born  of  the  political  sagacity,  far-reaching  wisdom  and  sanctified 
common  sense  of  the  New  England  Fathers,  who  builded  their  moral, 
social  and  political  institutions  upon  foundations  as  enduring  as  the 
rocks  of  their  own  sea-girt  colonies 

Multitudes  who  ardently,  and  even  vehemently,  defend  and 
support  free  schools,  and  favor  the  imposition  of  every  tax  necessary 
to  their  maintenance  in  the  most  liberal  and  efficient  manner,  are 
unaccountably  disturbed  at  the  idea  of  any  legal  provisions  to  secure 
attendance.  The  attitude  and  opinions  of  these  good  men  may  be 
thus  epitomized: 

"Proclaim  the  gospel  of  universal  education  by  free  public 
schools,"  they  say:  "it  is  the  only  gospel  of  political  safety.  Ballots 
for  all,  without  knowledge  for  all,  is  the  precipitous  road  to  anarchy 
or  despotism.  Establish  your  school  systems,  with  all  their  intricate 
and  nicely  adjusted  machinery,  and  their  tens  of  thousands  of  school 

officers  and  fiduciary  agents Tax,  with  a  free  hand,  that 

nothing  be  wanting,  for  the  people  must  be  educated.  If  any  refuse 
to  pay,  bring  down  upon  them  the  strong  arm,  and  make  them  pay; 
enforce  the  law,  seize  and  sell  their  goods  and  property,  and  extort 
the  tax,  for  the  youth  of  this  nation  must  be  educated.  Do  all  these 
things  without  hesitation  or  fear;  replenish  and  fill  your  school 
treasuries,  and  keep  them  full,  in  city,  town  and  country.  Spare  no 
pains,  omit  no  duty,  exercise  every  power  conferred  by  law,  for  the 
very  life  of  the  Republic  depends  upon  the  education  of  all  the  people. 
But,  let  there  be  no  compulsion  in  the  matter  of  attendance!  Any 
legislation  on  that  subject  would  be  un-American,  anti-republican, 
arbitrary,  despotic,  odious.  Every  parent  must  be  left  at  perfect 
liberty  to  avail  himself  of  these  princely  provisions,  or  not,  and  to 
educate  his  child,  or  leave  it  in  ignorance,  as  he  may  elect;  and  where 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE     383 

there  is  no  parental  control,  the  right  of  the  child  to  go  to  school  or 
stay  away,  must  on  no  account  be  infringed  or  abridged.  These  are 
matters  with  which  the  government,  even  though  that  government 
be  but  the  embodiment  and  utterance  of  the  popular  will,  has  no 
business  to  meddle.  Reserved  and  sacred  precincts  are  these,  into 
which  no  impertinent  school  law  may  presume  to  intrude.  The  very 
idea  of  pressure  in  this  direction  is  offensive,  and  repugnant  to  the 
spirit  of  our  institutions." 

"Moreover,"  say  they,  "such  legislation  will  do  no  good;  it  will 
not  reach  the  evil — the  spirits  of  absenteeism  and  truancy  cannot  be 
so  exorcised.  It  will  merely  offend,  and  alienate,  without  materially 
adding  to  the  muster-rolls  of  the  schools.  And  besides,  it  is  vain  to 
pass  laws  in  advance  of  public  sentiment;  they  will  be  an  irritation 
and  offence,  while  practically  remaining  a  dead  letter.  And  again, 
if  parents  may  be  compelled  to  educate  then:  children  as  the  State 
prescribes,  in  things  secular  and  temporal,  they  may  also  in  things 
religious  and  spiritual,  and  thus  the  inviolable  realm  of  conscience 
may  be  invaded.  Only  make  the  schools  themselves  what  they 
should  be,  and  the  maximum  attendance  will  be  attained  without 
legislation.  In  every  view,  therefore,  the  attempt  to  reach  the  ques- 
tion of  attendance  in  this  way,  is  impolitic  and  unnecessary,  and 
would  prove  inoperative  and  mischievous."  .... 

Popular  misapprehensions  of  the  subject. — It  is  not  proposed  to 

drag  children  to  school,  vi  et  armis,  as  some  seem  to  imagine 

The  proposed  legal  incentives  to  attendance,  unfortunately  called 
compulsion,  belong  to  the  simplest  and  most  familiar  category  of  legis- 
lative provisions To  illustrate,  I  quote  the  material  sections 

of  a  bill,  on  this  subject,  introduced  into  our  legislature  last  whiter: 

"Section  i.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  People  of  the  State  of  Illinois, 
represented  in  the  General  Assembly.  That  every  person  having  under 
his  control  a  child  between  the  ages  of  eight  and  fourteen  years,  shall 
annually,  during  the  continuance  of  his  control,  send  such  child  to 
some  public  school  in  the  school  district  in  which  he  resides,  at  least 
twelve  weeks,  if  the  public  school  of  such  district  so  long  continues, 
six  weeks  of  which  time  shall  be  consecutive;  and  for  every  neglect 
of  such  duty  the  party  offending  shall  forfeit  to  the  use  of  such  school 
district  a  sum  not  exceeding  twenty  dollars. 


384     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

"2.  The  penalty  provided  for  in  section  one  shall  not  be  imposed 
in  cases  where  it  appears,  upon  the  inquiry  of  the  directors  of  any 
school  district,  or  upon  trial  of  any  prosecution,  that  the  party  so 
neglecting  was  not  able,  by  reason  of  poverty,  to  send  such  child  to 
school,  or  to  furnish  him  or  her  with  the  necessary  clothing  and 
books,  or  that  such  child  has  been  kept  in  any  other  school  for  said 
period  of  time,  or  has  already  acquired  the  branches  of  learning 
taught  in  the  public  schools,  or  that  his  or  her  bodily  or  mental  con- 
dition has  been  such  as  to  prevent  his  or  her  attendance  at  school,  or 
application  to  study  for  the  period  required." 

....  It  serves  well  the  purpose  of  indicating  the  general  char- 
acter of  the  legal  pressure  which  it  is  proposed  to  bring  to  bear  upon 
parents  and  guardians  to  induce  them  to  educate  their  children;  and 
of  dispelling  the  ridiculous  fancies  entertained  by  the  ignorant,  and 
fostered  by  some  who  ought  to  know  better,  respecting  the  provisions 
and  appliances  of  a  compulsory  school  law.  Laws  in  relation  to 
school  attendance,  popularly  called  compulsory,  are  now  in  force  in 
the  States  of  Michigan,  New  Hampshire  and  Connecticut,  and  in 
none  of  them  is  the  compulsion,  the  force,  anything  different  from, 
or  more  alarming  than,  that  prescribed  in  the  bill  from  which  I  have 
quoted 

It  is  said  that  such  laws  cannot  be  enforced;  that  public  senti- 
ment is  against  them 

But,  it  is  said,  when  public  opinion  is  thus  prepared  for  com- 
pulsory laws,  there  will  be  no  need  of  them;  since,  by  the  very  condi- 
tions supposed,  the  pressure  of  public  sentiment  will  then  of  itself 
be  sufficient  to  suppress  absenteeism.  Then,  what  need  of  legislation 
on  any  subject,  that  has  the  general  approval  ?  .  .  .  .  There  can  be 
no  reasonable  doubt  that  the  effect  of  laws  to  secure  attendance  at 
school  would  be  substantially  the  same  as  the  effect  of  tax  laws  and 
of  other  general  laws — securing  obedience  from  a  like  proportion  of 
those  who  would  not  otherwise  act 

Finally,  the  expediency  and  present  necessity  of  legislative  inter- 
position to  shield  the  children  of  the  State  from  the  dangers  and  the 
wrong  of  ignorance,  may  be  urged  with  unanswerable  force  from  the 
statistics  of  absenteeism,  truancy  and  illiteracy  in  this  country.  It 
is  an  incontrovertible  fact  that  the  voluntary  plan  is  but  partially 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE    385 

successful.  The  proof  is  as  overwhelming,  as  it  is  alarming.  The 
evidence  is  comprehensive  and  cumulative.  It  pours  in  from  every 
State  and  territory,  and  from  all  the  chief  cities  of  the  republic.  The 
reports  of  State  and  city  superintendents,  and  of  the  National  Com- 
missioner of  Education,  are  burdened  with  the  sad  details.  The 
number  of  absentees  and  truants  in  our  chief  commercial  metropolis 
was  reported,  eight  years  ago,  as  a  mighty  army,  100,000  strong,  and 
subsequent  reports  show  little  comparative  improvement.  Uncounted 
thousands  of  vagrant,  lawless  children  prowl  the  streets,  and  roam 
through  the  purlieus  of  all  our  great  cities,  becoming  precocious  in 
wickedness,  and  going  down  with  frightful  precipitation  to  the  nether- 
most abysses  of  vice,  pollution  and  shame.  Taking  all  the  States 
from  which  reports  are  at  hand,  and  the  number  who  are  even  enrolled, 
in  any  given  year,  averages  less  than  half  the  total  school-going 
population,  while  the  average  daily  attendance  is  less  than  one-fifth 
of  that  population. 

But  the  fact  that  has  most  to  do  with  the  present  inquiry  is,  that 
a  comparison  of  the  statistics  of  the  last  decade  shows  but  slight 
improvement  in  the  ratio  of  attendants  to  non-attendants,  taking  all 
the  States,  territories  and  cities  into  the  account;  while  in  many  the 
change  has  even  been  for  the  worse — disproving  the  view  that  the 
evil  is  steadily  abating,  and  that  with  better  teachers,  better 
methods  and  better  schools,  it  will  continue  to  decrease  till  the 
minimum  is  practically  reached,  without  the  intervention  of  law. 
For  in  no  preceding  ten  years  of  our  common  school  history  has 
progress  in  the  science  and  methods  of  teaching,  and  in  what- 
soever makes  school  inviting  and  effective,  been  so  marked  and 
rapid 

It  is  supposed  by  some  that  legislative  interposition  to  oblige 
parents  to  secure  to  their  children  the  rudiments  of  a  good  common 
school  education,  is  inhibited  by  the  provisions  of  the  State  consti- 
tution, being,  especially,  contrary  to  the  rights  and  immunities 
granted  in  the  Bill  of  Rights;  and  this  view  is  supposed  to  be  favored, 
if  not  established,  by  the  decision  rendered  in  the  case  entitled,  "The 
People  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  ex.  rel.  Michael  O'Connell,  vs.  Robert 
Turner,  Superintendent  of  the  Reform  School  of  the  City  of  Chicago." 
LV  Ills.,  280. 


386     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

The  gist  of  the  very  clear  and  forcible  opinion  of  the  court  in 
that  case,  is  as  follows: 

"The  bill  of  rights  declares  that  'all  men  are  by  nature  free  and 
independent,  and  have  certain  inherent  and  inalienable  rights — 
among  these  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.'  This 
language  is  not  restrictive;  it  is  broad  and  comprehensive,  and 
declares  a  grand  truth,  that  'all  men,'  all  people  everywhere,  have 
the  inherent  and  inalienable  right  to  liberty.  Shall  we  say  to  the 
children  of  the  State,  you  shall  not  enjoy  this  right — a  right  inde- 
pendent of  all  human  laws  and  regulations?  It  is  declared  in  the 
constitution;  is  higher  than  constitution  and  law,  and  should  be  held 
forever  sacred. 

"Even  criminals  can  not  be  convicted  and  imprisoned  without 
the  process  of  law — without  a  regular  trial,  according  to  the  course  of 
the  common  law.  Why  should  minors  be  imprisoned  for  misfortune  ? 
Destitution  of  proper  parental  care,  ignorance,  idleness  and  vice,  are 
misfortunes,  not  crimes.  In  all  criminal  prosecutions  against  minors, 
for  grave  and  heinous  offenses,  they  have  the  right  to  demand  the 
nature  and  cause  of  the  accusation,  and  a  speedy  public  trial  by  an 
impartial  jury.  All  this  must  precede  the  final  commitment  to 
prison.  Why  should  children,  only  guilty  of  misfortune,  be  deprived 
of  liberty  without  'due  process  of  law'  ? 

"It  can  not  be  said  that  in  this  case  there  is  no  imprisonment. 
This  boy  is  deprived  of  a  father's  care;  bereft  of  home  influences; 
has  no  freedom  of  action;  made  subject  to  the  will  of  others,  and  thus 
feels  that  he  is  a  slave.  Nothing  could  more  contribute  to  paralyze 
the  youthful  energies,  crush  all  noble  aspirations,  and  unfit  him  for 
the  duties  of  manhood.  Other  means  of  a  milder  character;  other 
influences  of  a  more  kindly  nature;  other  laws  less  in  restraint  of 
liberty,  would  better  accomplish  the  reformation  of  the  depraved, 
and  infringe  less  upon  inalienable  rights."  .... 

But  at  what  point,  or  in  what  way,  does  that  doctrine  as  stated 
in  the  opinion,  or  any  of  its  legitimate  consequences,  touch  or  affect 
the  proposition  that  the  legislative  department  may  and  should 
interpose  to  secure  to  every  child  the  blessings  of  education  ?  We 
do  not  propose  the  imprisonment  of  children  "between  the  ages  of 
six  and  sixteen  years,"  or  of  any  other  ages,  for  any  period  of  time, 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE    387 

great  or  small.  We  do  not  allege  that  ignorance  is  a  crime  on  the 
part  of  the  child,  (except  when  caused  by  its  own  willful,  incorrigible 
viciousness  and  truancy),  but  a  misfortune,  as  held  by  the  court, 
deserving  pity  and  sympathy — not  a  prison.  We  put  it  the  other 
way;  holding  that  education  is  a  natural  and  inalienable  right  of 
every  child — "a  right  independent  of  all  human  laws  and  regulations; 
higher  than  constitution  and  law;  and  that  it  should  be  held  forever 
sacred";  and  hence,  that  willfully,  obstinately  and  needlessly  to 
deprive  a  child  of  that  right  is  a  crime  on  the  part  of  the  parent,  of 

which  the  legislative  department  may  properly  take  notice 

Recapitulation. — I  think  it  has  been  shown  that  the  legislative 
department  may  properly  intervene  to  prevent  those  who  have  the 
control  of  children,  from  compelling  or  permitting  such  children  to 
grow  up  in  ignorance;  that  such  intervention  is  not  an  abuse  of 
powers  conferred,  not  an  unwarrantable  assumption  of  powers  not 
granted;  that  it  is  no  improper  invasion  of  personal  liberty,  nor  of 
the  authority  and  rights  of  parents,  since  it  merely  enforces  the  per- 
formance of  parental  duty,  which  can  not  be  regarded  as  an  infrac- 
tion of  rights;  that  it  is  not  inconsistent  with  rational  freedom  of 
conscience;  that  it  puts  the  right  of  the  child  to  be  educated,  above 
the  right  of  the  parent  to  keep  it  in  ignorance;  that  it  protects  the 
many,  who  do  educate  their  children,  against  the  counteracting 
influence  of  the  few,  who  will  not;  that  it  shields  the  innocent  from 
cruel  wrong,  since  starving  the  mind  is  worse  than  abusing  the  body; 
that  it  is  grounded  upon  the  belief  that  to  bring  up  children  in 
ignorance,  willfully  and  without  cause,  is  a  crime,  and  should  be 
treated  as  such;  that  such  conduct  on  the  part  of  those  having  the 
control  of  children,  being  a  fruitful  source  of  criminality,  should  be 
under  the  ban  of  legal  condemnation,  and  the  restraint  of  legal 
punishment;  that  the  allegations  as  to  the  incompatibility  of  such 
laws  with  the  nature  and  spirit  of  our  political  system,  are  unfounded, 
as  also  are  the  apprehensions  concerning  the  assumed  harshness  and 
severity  of  their  enforcement ;  .  .  .  .  that  the  exclusively  voluntary 
policy  has  been,  and  is,  but  partially  successful,  while  the  accelerated 
influx  of  foreigners  renders  the  adoption  of  new  measures  of  education, 
without  delay,  a  grave  political  necessity;  that  the  proposed  legis- 
lative intervention  is  but  an  affirmance  of  the  irrefutable  truth,  that 


388     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

if  it  is  right  to  tax  all  for  the  education  of  all,  then  it  is  equally  right 
to  see  that  all  are  educated;  that  it  is  in  the  line  of  a  general  human 
right,  and  of  a  fundamental  right  of  children,  and  is  compulsory  only 
as  that  right  must  be  protected  against  any  and  all  infringements; 
that  it  is  required,  to  fully  utilize  the  vast  resources  already  devoted 
to  public  education,  and  to  prevent  enormous  and  increasing  waste 
of  money,  property  and  effort. 


APPENDIX  H 

EXTRACTS   FROM    PUBLICATIONS    OF   THE    BOARD    OF 

EDUCATION  RELATING  TO  THE  COMPULSORY 

EDUCATION  PROBLEM  IN  CHICAGO 

Extracts  from:  (i)  Report  of  Superintendent  of  Schools,  Chicago,  1856: 
Uneducated  Children  of  Chicago;  (2)  ibid.,  1857:  The  Evil  of  Irregular 
Attendance;  (3)  ibid.,  1864-65:  Truancy — Its  Extent  and  Causes;  (4) 
Thirty-fourth  Annual  Report,  The  Board  of  Education,  Chicago, 
1887-88:  Idle  Boys  upon  the  Streets. 

( i)  Uneducated  Children  of  Chicago  (Extract  from  the  Third  A  nnual 

Report  of  Superintendent  of  Public  Schools  of  Chicago 

for  the  Year  1856,  pp.  4-11} 

While  we  may  congratulate  ourselves  upon  the  liberal  provision 
made  by  our  city  for  the  education  of  her  children,  and  I  trust  also 
upon  the  present  healthy  condition  of  the  schools,  we  cannot  conceal 
the  fact  that  a  large  number  of  children  are  growing  up  in  our  midst, 
without  ever  availing  themselves  of  the  means  provided  for  their 
instruction.  Most  of  this  class  of  children  are  constant  and  punctual 
in  their  attendance  upon  the  various  schools  of  poverty  and  crime; 
and  though  never  found  within  the  walls  of  a  school  house,  it  is  to  be 
feared  their  education  will  prove  the  most  expensive  that  is  furnished 
to  any  class  of  our  children. 

It  has  seemed  to  me  a  matter  of  importance,  at  this  period  in  the 
history  of  the  schools,  to  ascertain  as  nearly  as  possible  the  number 
of  children  in  our  midst  of  suitable  age  to  attend  school,  who  are 
entirely  destitute  of  school  instruction.  It  appears  from  the  recent 
census  of  the  city,  that  the  number  of  children  in  Chicago  between 
the  ages  of  five  and  fifteen  years,  is  about  17,100.  I  take  the  period 
between  five  and  fifteen  years,  because  these  are  generally  regarded 
as  the  limits  of  the  school  age,  though  many  pupils  remain  in  school 
till  the  age  of  eighteen  or  twenty.  Our  problem,  then,  is  to  account 

389 


390     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

for  the  school  instruction  of  these  17,100  children  who  are  of  suitable 
age  to  attend  school. 

The  whole  number  of  pupils  in  attendance  upon  the  public  schools 
of  the  city  at  any  time  during  the  year  1856,  after  deducting  those 
over  fifteen,  was  8,306.  This  number  taken  from  17,100  leaves 
8,794  still  to  be  accounted  for. 

The  census  of  the  city  affords  no  means  of  ascertaining  the  num- 
ber of  pupils  instructed  in  the  private  schools;  but  as  it  is  impossible 
to  arrive  at  any  satisfactory  solution  of  our  question  without  this 
knowledge,  I  have  taken  measures  to  secure  a  thorough  canvass  of 
the  city,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  it.  The  result  shows  that  there 
are  at  the  present  time  fifty-six  private  schools  of  various  grades  in 
the  city,  including  the  Industrial  Schools  and  the  Orphan  Asylum, 
with  an  aggregate  attendance  of  3,850  between  the  ages  of  five  and 
fifteen.  To  find  the  whole  number  attending  the  private  schools 
during  the  year,  we  must  add  to  the  number  now  enrolled,  as  nearly 
as  can  be  ascertained,  about  550,  making  in  all  4,400.  Taking  this 
number  from  8,794,  we  have  yet  remaining  4,394  children  between 
five  and  fifteen,  that  have  not  during  the  year  been  found  a  single 
day  in  any  school  of  the  city,  either  public  or  private. 

In  settling  the  question,  how  many  children  are  habitually 
absent  from  the  schools  who  ought  to  be  found  in  them,  we  must  make 
some  further  reduction  of  this  number.  There  are  a  few  cases  in 
which  provision  is  made  by  parents  for  the  instruction  of  their 
children  at  home.  There  is  also  a  small  number  of  children  that  are 
either  physically  or  mentally  incapacitated  to  attend  school.  Per- 
haps some  allowance  should  be  made  for  those  who  have  obtained 
what  may  be  regarded  a  respectable  education,  and  left  school  before 
reaching  the  age  of  fifteen.  It  would  probably  be  a  high  estimate  to 
put  the  number  embraced  in  all  these  classes  at  1,000.  No  one 
would  think  of  putting  it  higher  than  1,394.  But  this  number  taken 
from  4,394,  leaves  at  least  3,000  children  in  our  city  who  are  utterly 
destitute  of  school  instruction  or  any  equivalent  for  it. 

This  is  no  theoretical  speculation.  The  facts  I  have  adduced 
have  been  collected  and  revised  with  the  utmost  care.  I  leave  out  of 
account  the  fact  that  hundreds  of  those  whose  names  are  enrolled 
as  members  of  the  schools,  attend  less  than  a  single  month  in  the 


COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  PROBLEM  IN  CHICAGO    391 

year,  while  hundreds  of  others  are  so  irregular  in  their  attendance 
that  they  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  benefited  at  all  by  the  instruction 
they  receive.  Pupils  embraced  in  these  classes  are  ranked  the  same 
in  my  estimates  as  those  who  are  punctual  and  regular  in  their  attend- 
ance through  the  year.  I  would  gladly  present  a  different  picture, 
but  the  facts  will  not  possibly  admit  of  it.  The  truth  is  demon- 
strable, that  not  less  than  3,000  children  in  our  city  are  destitute  of 
all  proper  instruction  during  the  period,  which  is  to  decide  their 
future  character  and  influence  as  citizens  of  a  free  Republic.  This 
number  is  greater  than  the  average  attendance  of  the  public  schools 
during  any  month  in  the  year! 

The  Superintendent  of  Public  Schools  in  the  city  of  Boston,1  in 
a  recent  report,  arrived  at  the  very  gratifying  conclusion,  "that  there 
are  not  more,  on  an  average,  than  500  absentees  from  school,  who 
deserve  to  be  blamed  for  non-attendance."  If  Chicago  compares 
unfavorably  in  this  respect  with  some  of  the  older  cities,  the  difference 
is  not  to  be  ascribed  to  any  lack  of  interest  in  the  cause  of  public 
instruction,  or  reluctance  to  provide  facilities  for  the  improvement 
of  the  schools.  The  causes  of  this  difference  are  mostly  those,  which 
are  incident  to  the  changing  character  and  rapid  increase  of  our 
population.  It  is  true  that  the  crowded  condition  of  the  public 
schools  has  had  the  effect  to  prevent  a  considerable  number  from 
entering  them;  but  so  rapid  is  the  growth  of  the  city,  that  rooms, 
which  afford  liberal  accommodations  for  a  school,  when  a  new 
house  is  put  under  contract,  become  excessively  crowded  during 
the  few  months  required  for  its  erection.  The  distance  of  many 
families  from  any  public  school,  is  another  serious  obstacle  to  the 
attendance  of  children,  especially  those  living  in  remote  parts  of 
the  city. 

But,  while  we  may  find  in  our  peculiar  circumstances  an  expla- 
nation of  the  causes  which  have  led  to  this  deplorable  condition  of 
so  large  a  number  of  children,  it  would  be  suicidal  for  us  to  close  our 

1  The  President  of  the  Board  of  Education  in  New  York,  in  his  recent 
inaugural  address,  estimates  the  number  of  children  in  that  city  who  are 
habitually  absent  from  school  at  more  than  20,000.  In  Cincinnati  there 
are  about  41,000  children  of  suitable  age  to  attend  school,  of  whom  it  is 
estimated  that  more  than  8,000  are  never  found  in  the  schools. 


392     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

eyes  to  the  magnitude  of  the  evil  and  the  fearful  relation  it  bears  to 
the  future  character  and  destiny  of  our  city. 

If  it  be  asked,  what  can  be  done  to  reduce  the  number  of  absentees 
from  the  schools,  the  first  and  most  natural  step  to  be  taken,  is  to 
furnish  the  community  with  information  in  respect  to  the  nature  and 
extent  of  the  evil  that  exists,  and  this  is  the  main  object  which  I  have 
had  in  view,  in  presenting  the  foregoing  facts.  If  the  citizens  of 
Chicago  could  be  brought  fully  to  realize  that  these  3,000  children, 
growing  up  in  ignorance,  and  many  of  them  in  want  and  crime,  are 
a  dangerous  element  in  our  social  compact,  a  thousand  almost  imper- 
ceptible influences  would  soon  be  brought  to  bear  upon  them,  and 
more  than  a  thousand  children,  now  found  in  the  streets  or  in  haunts 
of  vice,  would  soon  be  found  in  the  public  schools.  The  ingenuity 
of  philanthropists  would  be  tasked  to  devise  means,  by  which  this 
poisonous  stream  might  be  purified,  before  its  deadly  waters  are 
mingled  in  the  full,  strong  current  of  adult  life. 

By  increasing  the  number  of  schools  so  as  to  furnish  an  adequate 
number  of  teachers,  and  a  proper  amount  of  room,  and  thus  render 
the  schools  more  efficient  and  attractive,  we  shall  do  much  to  increase 
the  number  in  attendance.  But  when  all  general  measures  have 
been  tried,  as  far  as  they  can  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  case,  it  is 
to  be  feared  that  a  large  class  of  children  will  still  be  left  to  grow  up 
in  ignorance,  unless  some  special  means  are  adopted  to  bring  them 
under  the  influence  of  school  instruction. 

(2)  The  Evil  of  Irregular  Attendance  (Fourth  Annual  Report  of  the 
Superintendent  of  Public  Schools  of  Chicago,  1857,  pp.  42-49} 

The  evil  of  irregular  attendance  is  one  that  has  long  engaged  the 
attention  of  the  Board  of  Education,  and  one  that  has  hitherto 
baffled  all  the  efforts  that  have  been  made  for  its  removal.  It  is  now 
universally  regarded  as  the  most  dangerous  evil  that  exists  in  con- 
nection with  the  free  school  system. 

Near  the  close  of  1857,  the  Board  adopted  the  following  rule, 
which  took  effect  on  the  first  of  January,  1858: 

"Any  scholar  who  shall  be  absent  six  half  days  in  four  consecu- 
tive weeks,  without  an  excuse  from  the  parent  or  guardian,  given 


COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  PROBLEM  IN  CHICAGO     393 

either  in  person  or  by  written  note,  satisfying  the  teacher  that  the 
absences  were  caused  by  his  own  sickness  or  by  sickness  in  the  family, 
shall  forfeit  his  seat  in  the  school;  and  the  teacher  shall  forthwith 
notify  the  parent  and  the  Superintendent  that  the  pupil  is  suspended. 
No  pupil  thus  suspended  shall  be  restored  to  school,  till  he  has  given 
satisfactory  assurance  of  punctuality  in  the  future  and  obtained  per- 
mission from  the  Superintendent  to  return." 

The  propriety  or  impropriety  of  adopting  such  a  rule,  involves 
grave  questions,  which  lie  at  the  very  foundation  of  our  system  of 
free  schools. 

That  education  should  be  free  and  universal,  is  now  the  prevail- 
ing sentiment  of  this  nation.  The  primary  basis  on  which  the  doc- 
trine of  free  schools  rests,  is  the  safety  of  the  State.  Uneducated 
men  and  women  are  regarded  as  a  dangerous  element  in  a  free 
Republic.  There  are,  however,  many  who  still  look  with  distrust 
upon  schools  entirely  free,  and  the  number  would  be  found  to  be 
much  larger  than  it  appears,  if  it  were  not  for  the  odium  of  entertaining 
sentiments  that  are  unpopular  with  the  masses.  Even  among  the 
ablest  and  most  devoted  friends  of  popular  education,  there  are  not 
wanting  those  who  regard  it  as  unwise  to  make  our  schools  entirely 
free  to  children  whose  parents  are  able  to  contribute  to  their  support. 
They  believe  that  opportunities  which  cost  nothing  can  never  be 
fully  appreciated,  and  that  our  schools  can  never  rise  to  the  highest 
order  of  excellence  while  those  who  enjoy  their  benefits  do  not  put 
forth  any  direct  effort  to  aid  in  sustaining  them.  The  Hon.  Henry 
Barnard,  of  Connecticut,  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  devoted  friends 
of  education  in  the  country,  has  long  entertained  this  view  of  the 
subject.  During  the  last  year,  an  animated  discussion  on  this  ques- 
tion took  place  on  New  England  ground,  between  Mr.  Barnard  and 
the  Hon.  George  S.  Boutwell,  Secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  Board 
of  Education. 

The  friends  of  free  schools  have  much  to  fear  from  the  arguments 
that  are  based  upon  the  irregular  attendance  of  scholars,  and  the 
consequent  waste  of  so  large  a  portion  of  the  funds  that  are  pro- 
vided for  the  support  of  the  schools.  If  this  waste  was  as  apparent 
as  it  is  real,  a  remedy  in  some  form  would  long  since  have  been 
demanded. 


394     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Let  us  take,  for  illustration,  our  own  city.  The  average  number 
of  absences  from  all  the  Grammar  and  Primary  Schools  during  the 
year,  was  more  than  one-fifth  of  the  average  number  belonging  to  the 
schools.  But  if  one-fifth  of  the  children  are  always  absent,  there  is  an 
absolute  loss  of  one-fifth  of  the  expense  of  sustaining  the  schools,  for 
it  is  obviously  much  easier  to  instruct  any  number  of  pupils  who  are 
punctual,  than  the  same  number  that  are  habitually  irregular  in  their 
attendance.  The  derangement  of  classes  and  the  time  required 
to  bring  up  lost  lessons,  are  always  more  than  an  equivalent  for  the 
time  saved  by  any  reduction  of  numbers  that  may  be  occasioned 
by  absences.  Here,  then,  is  a  positive  loss  to  the  city  of  more 
than  $12,000  during  the  year  1857.  In  two  years,  this  loss 
amounts  to  a  sum  sufficient  to  build  one  of  our  first  class  school 
houses. 

But  it  is  not  the  waste  of  money  alone,  that  is  sapping  the 
foundations  of  our  free  school  system.  One  of  the  principal  objects 
in  making  the  schools  free  and  common  to  all  classes,  is  to  remove  the 
danger  of  having  an  uneducated  and  vicious  class  of  persons  con- 
stantly growing  up,  to  prey  upon  society.  This  object  is  of  course 
in  a  great  degree  lost,  if  those  whom  the  schools  are  desired  to  raise 
from  vagrancy  and  ignorance,  are  to  regard  them  with  indifference 
and  neglect. 

In  this  city,  as  in  others,  there  is  a  class  of  parents  who  seem  to 
regard  the  public  schools  as  convenient  places,  where  they  may  send 
their  children  on  days  when  they  happen  to  have  nothing  else  for 
them  to  do.  The  consequence  is,  that  many  children  have  been  in 
the  habit  of  attending  school  only  one  or  two  days  in  the  week — in 
some  instances  not  more  than  two  or  three  days  in  a  month;  often 
enough  to  retard  the  progress  of  the  class  with  which  they  were  con- 
nected, but  not  often  enough  to  derive  any  substantial  benefit 
themselves. 

But  there  is  another  evil  connected  with  the  irregular  attendance 
of  scholars,  that  is  seriously  affecting  the  interests  of  free  schools. 
The  absence  of  a  portion  of  a  class,  retards  the  progress  of  all  the  rest. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  in  many  of  the  classes  in  our  schools,  the  advance- 
ment has  not  been  more  than  two-thirds  or  three-fourths  as  great 
as  it  would  have  been  if  the  pupils  had  been  punctual  in  their  attend- 


COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  PROBLEM  IN  CHICAGO     395 

ance.  If  all  the  members  of  a  class  were  equally  irregular,  each 
pupil  would  suffer  his  own  share  of  this  loss.  But  the  records  of  the 
schools  show  that  more  than  one-half  of  the  absences  belong  to  less 
than  one-fifth  of  the  scholars.  Here,  then,  is  a  most  glaring  injustice. 
Parents  sometimes  claim  that  they  have  a  right  to  keep  their  children 
from  school  when  they  please,  without  stopping  to  consider  that 
other  parents,  whose  children  are  uniformly  punctual,  have  also  a 
right  to  expect  that  they  will  not  be  kept  back  in  their  classes  by  those 
who  are  habitually  irregular. 

Heretofore  this  right  of  the  few  to  hinder  the  progress  of  the 
many,  has  been  yielded;  while  the  right  of  the  many  to  advance 
without  these  impediments,  has  been  disregarded.  A  large  portion 
of  the  children  that  are  taken  from  the  public  schools  and  placed 
under  private  instruction,  are  transferred  from  this  cause;  while 
many  of  the  parents  whose  children  still  remain,  have  an  abiding 
feeling  that  their  rights  are  disregarded  for  the  gratification  of  those 
who  are  indifferent  to  the  education  of  their  own  children. 

Every  one  at  all  conversant  with  our  schools,  is  aware  that  most 
of  the  absences  that  occur,  are  occasioned  by  the  carelessness  and 
neglect  of  parents,  and  not  by  any  real  necessity. 

If  this  evil  is  to  continue  unchecked,  our  schools  can  never  reach 
a  high  standard  of  excellence,  and  many  parents  will  contrive  to  send 
their  children  to  private  schools,  rather  than  submit  to  the  annoyance 
of  having  them  classed  with  those  who  have  no  ambition  to  improve, 
and  who  are  not  willing  to  put  forth  the  necessary  effort  to  establish 
habits  of  punctuality. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  rights  of  all  shall  be  equally  regarded, 
and  an  ordinary  degree  of  regularity  in  attendance  upon  the  schools 
shall  be  made  a  condition  of  membership,  then  may  we  expect  that 
our  schools  will  continue  to  advance,  and  become  more  and  more 
worthy  of  the  confidence  of  all  classes  in  the  community. 

I  have  taken  the  liberty  to  present  these  views,  because  it  is  vain 
for  us  to  close  our  eyes  against  evils  that  threaten  the  stability  of 
our  noble  system  of  public  instruction.  I  believe  that  this  system  is 
destined  to  triumph,  and  that,  in  the  future  history  of  the  country, 
the  common  schools  will  be  entirely  free.  But  of  nothing  do  I  feel 
more  fully  assured  than  this,  that  if  the  free  school  system  is  finally 


396     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

to  prevail,  it  must  be  by  reducing  it  to  a  rigidly  economical  basis,  and 
by  treating  the  rights  of  all  with  equal  consideration. 

It  was  with  this  view  of  the  case,  that  the  Board  of  Education 
adopted  the  rule  requiring  those  who  enter  the  public  schools  of  this 
city,  to  attend  with  some  degree  of  regularity.  The  rule  has  already 
accomplished  twice  as  much  in  improving  the  standard  of  punctuality 
in  our  schools,  as  all  previous  agencies  combined. 

So  far  as  I  can  learn,  the  rule  has  given  general  satisfaction. 
More  than  a  hundred  different  parents  have  already  applied  in  person 
to  have  their  children  restored  to  the  seats  that  had  been  forfeited 
by  irregular  attendance;  but  I  can  recollect  only  a  single  instance 
in  which  a  parent  has  made  any  special  complaint  of  the  rule  itself, 
while  in  a  large  majority  of  cases,  those  whom  I  have  seen  have 
expressed  themselves  gratified  with  its  adoption. 

It  is  not  the  design  of  the  rule  to  exclude  from  the  schools  any 
children  whose  parents  put  forth  sufficient  effort  to  secure  an  ordi- 
nary degree  of  punctuality;  and  even  when  a  seat  has  been  forfeited, 
the  pupil  is  not  necessarily  deprived  of  the  privileges  of  the  school, 
except  for  a  single  day. 

One  of  the  most  important  advantages  of  the  rule,  is  the  oppor- 
tunity it  affords  the  Superintendent  to  confer  with  parents  in  regard 
to  the  interests  of  their  children  and  of  the  schools. 

Similar  rules  have  already  been  adopted  hi  St.  Louis,  Dubuque, 
Cincinnati,  Hartford,  New  Haven,  Worcester,  and  other  cities; 
embracing  the  principle  that  habitual  irregularity  of  attendance  is 
a  sufficient  cause  for  depriving  a  pupil  of  his  seat  in  school 

(3)  Truancy — Its  Extent  and  Causes  (Extract  from  Eleventh  Annual 
Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago, 
1864-65,  pp.  19-38) 

Let  our  attention  be  turned,  a  moment,  to  the  facts  concerning 
those  who  are  enrolled  upon  our  School  Records.  We  shall  find 
the  average  number  belonging,  during  any  one  month,  about  90  per 
cent,  of  the  whole  number  enrolled,  and  the  average  daily  attendance 
only  90  per  cent,  of  the  average  number  belonging  to  the  schools. 
From  this  we  learn,  first,  that  about  10  per  cent,  of  the  membership 
of  our  schools  is  changed  each  month;  and,  second,  that  10  per  cent. 


COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  PROBLEM  IN  CHICAGO     397 

of  the  number  belonging  to  the  schools  are  absent  every  day.  Could 
our  schools  all  be  visited,  upon  a  day  of  average  weather,  only  13,500 
of  the  15,000  acutally  belonging  there,  would  be  seen.  Where  are 
the  remaining  1,500?  Some  are  sick,  and  others  are  feigning  sick- 
ness; some  are  watching  by  the  sickbed  of  some  other  member  of  the 
family;  some  are  supplying  the  places  of  others,  whom  necessity 
has  sent  from  home;  some  are  entertaining  friends;  some  are  pre- 
paring to  entertain  expected  visitors,  or  to  be  entertained  by  inviting 
hosts;  some  are  idly  dozing  away  time  under  the  plea  of  resting  from 
some  unusual  physical  exertion,  or  are  recovering  from  the  fatigue 
attendant  upon  some  unnecessary  conviviality;  some  are  moping 
about  in  their  effort  to  execute  an  errand,  trumped  up  as  an  excuse 
for  absence;  many  are  endeavoring  to  render  earnestly  proffered 
assistance  to  indulgent  parents,  who  accept  offers  of  help  when  it  is 
not  needed,  rather  than  cross  the  wishes  of  their  children;  many  are 
roaming  the  streets  in  search  of  enjoyment  not  found  in  books;  while 
some  are  skulking  about,  shunning  both  parent  and  teacher,  while 
they  play  truant.  To  all  these  forms  of  excuse,  the  children  are 
agreed.  But  the  whole  truth  is  not  yet  told.  Many  who  would 
gladly  be  in  their  places,  are  absent  because  of  their  parents'  indiffer- 
ence or  carelessness.  Avarice,  too,  has  had  its  influence  in  depriving 
the  school  room  of  happy  faces,  willing  minds,  and  joyous  hearts. 
The  little  earnings  of  the  child  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other 
hand  the  money  saved,  that  would  otherwise  have  gone  to  the  pur- 
chase of  books  and  necessary  clothing  to  make  the  child  comfortable 
at  school,  have  had  a  more  powerful  influence  through  the  father's 
pocket,  than  the  earnest  look  and  beseeching  tone  of  the  little  child 
thirsting  for  knowledge,  combined  with  the  father's  conviction  of 
duty  in  regard  to  the  mental  and  moral  cultivation  of  his  offspring. 
Many  a  child  has  been  sacrificed,  mentally  and  morally,  as  well  as 
physically,  to  the  pecuniary  interest  of  the  parent.  Every  effort 
should  be  made  to  secure  the  city  against  the  inroads  which  avarice 
and  carelessness  are  thus  making  upon  her  prosperity. 

Were  the  evil  of  irregular  attendance  confined  to  any  individuals, 
constituting  10  per  cent,  of  the  number  belonging  in  school,  it  could 
be  much  more  easily  borne,  and  would  prove  less  disastrous;  but 
to  make  up  the  ten  absentees  each  day,  more  than  fifty  out  of  each 


398     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

hundred  are  drawn  upon  during  the  month,  and  the  fifty  will  be 
foutid  more  or  less  irregular,  so  that  a  majority  of  each  school  is,  in 
reality,  irregular  in  its  attendance.  To-day,  ten  are  absent; 
to-morrow,  five  will  return,  and  their  places  will  be  supplied  by  five 
who  are  present  to-day,  and  upon  some  other  day  the  ten  of  to-day 
will  be  found  in  their  seats,  but  the  seats  of  ten  others  will  be  vacant. 
Thus  the  school  changes  from  day  to  day,  classes  are  kept  back  on 
account  of  the  slow  progress  of  the  irregular,  and  if  it  be  urged  that 
the  majority  should  control  the  progress  of  the  class,  it  will  be  found 
upon  inquiry  that  the  majority  is  irregular,  and  so  does  control. 

Earnest  and  faithful  as  the  teacher  may  be,  he  will  yet  fail  to 
reach  many  cases  of  truancy.  The  parents'  absence  from  home  at 
the  most  important  part  of  the  day,  the  unwillingness  of  other  par- 
ents to  take  any  interest  in  the  punctual  attendance  of  their  child; 
and  the  utter  refusal  of  others,  who  encourage  truancy  in  their 
children,  to  aid  the  teacher  in  his  work,  enforce  the  necessity  of 
some  other  agency  than  those  established  by  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, and  faithfully  executed  by  willing  teachers 

The  necessity  of  some  such  system  becomes  every  day  more 
apparent  in  this  city.  The  city  owes  it  to  herself  as  an  act  of  self- 
preservation.  I  shall  be  met  with  the  objection  that  the  city  has 
no  right  to  compel  the  attendance  of  any  children  upon  her  public 
schools.  For  the  sake  of  argument,  admit  this  to  be  true,  and  for  a 
moment  let  us  examine  whether  there  is  anything  compulsory  in  the 
plan  proposed.  It  is  not  expected  that  all  children  will  attend  the 
public  schools;  they  are  left  at  liberty  to  attend  or  not  as  they  may 
see  fit.  The  Truant  Officer  is  expected  to  use  all  his  persuasive  power 
to  induce  attendance  upon  some  school  of  those  who  are  growing  up 
without  any  instruction  or  without  occupation.  Further  than  this 
I  do  not  ask  that  his  power  shall  for  the  present  extend.  But  with 
truants  from  schools  to  which  they  properly  belong,  the  case  is 
different.  They  have  been  placed  at  school  with  a  full  understand- 
ing that  they  must  submit  to  all  reasonable  rules  and  regulations. 
Is  any  regulation  more  reasonable  than  the  one  which  demands  regular 
attendance  upon  school  ?  Is  any  rule  more  reasonable  than  the  one 
which  requires  correct  deportment  on  the  part  of  all  pupils  ?  Would 


COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  PROBLEM  IN  CHICAGO     399 

not  a  parent  have  just  reason  to  complain  of  any  school  which 
neglected  these  very  important  matters  ?  Can  a  proper  care  for  the 
execution  of  these  rules  be  considered  at  all  compulsory  in  its  nature  ? 
Does  not  every  candid  parent  consent  to  such  a  discipline  of  his 
child  ?  •  Would  any  proper  means  to  secure  good  habits  be  considered 
compulsory  ?  Would  not  every  parent  rather  compel  the  observance 
of  rules  so  wise  and  salutary  ? 

So  far  as  the  arrest  and  sentence  of  the  offender  is  concerned, 
is  it  any  more  compulsory  than  the  law  which  already  exists,  and 
under  which  the  same  offender  is  liable  to  arrest  and  sentence  at  least 
so  soon  as  he  shall  have  reached  the  point  of  crime  toward  which 
his  habits  of  truancy  are  most  surely  leading  him  ?  .  .  .  . 

The  necessity  of  some  system  to  check  truancy  is  enforced  by  the 
following  considerations: 

Truants  are  rapidly  learning  the  lessons  of  the  street :  lessons  at 
war  with  the  vital  interests  of  the  people,  a  school  in  which  pupils 
make  rapid  progress  in  disobedience  to  parents,  prevarication,  false- 
hood, obscenity,  profanity,  lewdness,  intemperance,  petty  thieving, 
larceny,  burglary,  robbery  and  murder,  whose  graduates  become  a 
prey  upon  the  citizen,  and  a  constant  tax  upon  his  pocket.  Out  of 
nearly  2,800  criminals  confined  in  the  State  of  New  York  during  a 
period  of  ten  years,  it  was  found  that  less  than  250  had  ever  been 
regular  attendants  upon  any  school. 

Again,  the  cost  of  the  system  will  be  less  to  the  city  than  the 
care  of  the  criminals  added  to  the  list  by  its  absence. 

Still  further,  the  city  owes  a  debt  to  those  poor  parents,  who  are 
necessarily  away  from  their  homes  during  the  entire  day,  and  who 
cannot,  for  that  reason,  prevent  or  correct  the  truant  habits  of  their 
children.  Such  children  feel  sure  of  immunity  in  their  truancy, 
because  their  parents  cannot  be  found  by  the  teacher  when  he  seeks 
a  reason  for  their  absence.  Many  such  parents  have,  during  the 
past  year,  besought  my  aid  in  correcting  the  truancy  of  their  children. 
Gladly  as  I  would  aid  them,  my  lack  of  time  forbids  any  such  work 
as  a  Truant  Officer  can  alone  well  do. 

I  leave  this  subject  with  the  hope  that  such  measures  will  be 
adopted  by  the  laity  as  now  lie  within  their  power,  and  if  further 
legislative  action  is  needed,  that  early  steps  will  be  taken  to  secure  it. 


400     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

(4)  I  die  Boys  upon  the  Streets  (Extract  from  the  Thirty-fourth  Annual 

Report  of  the  Board  of  Education,  Chicago,  1887-88, 

pp.  20-23} 

Although  the  State  has  taken  steps  toward  compulsory  edu- 
cation, yet  much  remains  to  be  done  before  the  law  can  be  efficiently 
enforced.  In  some  cities,  notably  New  York,  there  are  officers  with 
police  authority  whose  business  it  is  to  look  out  for  and  take  to  school 
truant  children  found  roaming  about  the  streets  during  school  hours; 
something  of  the  sort  is  needed  here,  in  order  to  give  greater  efficiency 
to  our  school  system.  The  law,  it  is  true,  provides  that  parents  shall 
be  prosecuted  who  fail  to  send  their  children  to  school  three  months 
during  each  year.  But  to  devolve  this  additional  duty  upon  mem- 
bers of  the  Board  of  Education,  who  are  already  overburdened  with 
so  many  of  the  responsibilities  of  the  school  system  of  this  great  city, 
practically  leaves  the  law  a  dead  letter.  The  duty  of  enforcing  this 
law  ought  in  terms  to  be  devolved  upon  the  agencies  provided  by 
law  for  police  purposes  or  greater  powers  given  specifically  to  the 
Board. 

In  my  last  report  I  referred  to  some  of  the  defects  in  our  school 
system,  notably  a  want  of  authority,  by  which  many  of  the  youth 
of  both  sexes  were  permitted  to  roam  idly  about  the  streets.  A 
proper  authority  to  control  these  children,  at  least  to  the  extent 
of  compelling  their  attendance  at  either  the  day  or  the  night  schools, 
would  undoubtedly  be  the  means  of  their  reclamation  to  a  life  of  use- 
fulness. It  is  believed  that  the  Legislature  would,  if  properly 
memorialized  on  the  subject,  so  amend  the  existing  law  as  to  author- 
ize the  detention  of  children  found  upon  the  street  during  school 
hours,  and  provide  for  conducting  them  to  school,  with  punishment 
for  a  second  offense.  This  would  do  much  toward  breaking  up  those 
object  lessons  in  vice,  so  often  found  where  boys  are  collected  after 
nightfall. 

If  authority  existed  to  arrest  truant  children,  and  see  that  they 
are  taken  to  some  city  school,  the  parents  would  be  forced  to  exercise 
greater  vigilance  as  to  the  whereabouts  of  their  children.  One  of  the 
principal  excuses  given  by  some  parents  for  not  keeping  their  children 
in  school  is  that  they  are  compelled  by  poverty  to  send  them  out  to 


COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  PROBLEM  IN  CHICAGO     401 

service,  to  aid  in  their  own  support.  This  may  in  some  instances  be 
a  fair  excuse,  but  in  a  country  like  ours  the  State  ought  not  to  permit 
the  early  life  of  a  citizen  to  be  thus  dwarfed.  By  the  munificence  of 
former  citizens,  funds  have  been  provided  for  the  purchase  of  books 
by  the  Board,  to  be  distributed,  under  the  direction  of  the  Principal 
of  the  school,  to  pupils  whose  means  are  insufficient  to  purchase  the 
necessary  books  for  school  use.  And  it  must  be  that  we  have  in  our 
midst  citizens  who  would  of  their  substance  provide  the  necessary 
clothing  to  enable  all  children  to  attend  school.  Is  it  not  the  mani- 
fest duty  of  the  State  to  more  effectually  prevent  the  employment  of 
children  of  tender  years  in  factories,  and  other  places,  when  the  best 
interests  of  the  community  require  that  their  education  should  be 
proceeded  with  ?  The  State  looks  upon  the  child,  boy  or  girl,  only 
as  a  future  citizen,  in  a  free  State,  to  be  bound  by  its  laws,  to  partici- 
pate directly  in  the  administration  of  its  government,  and  by  and 
through  whom  its  free  institutions  are  to  be  transmitted  unimpaired 
to  future  generations.  If,  therefore,  the  parent  is  derelict  in  his 
duty  and  sends  his  child  to  work,  instead  of  to  school,  why  should  not 
the  State  interfere  for  its  own  and  the  child's  well-being?  A  recent 
writer  on  Popular  Government,  Sir  Henry  Maine,  calls  attention  to 
the  fact  that  in  Democracies  there  is  a  growing  tendency,  in  the  indi- 
vidual citizen,  to  grow  indifferent  to  the  minute  atom  of  sovereignty, 
vested  in  him,  and  to  become  neglectful  in  its  exercise.  This  neglect, 
by  a  natural  evolution,  develops  "the  party  leader"  in  our  large 
centers  of  population.  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  therefore, 
that  the  rising  generation  shall  be  early  and  thoroughly  instructed 
in  the  duties  of  an  enlightened  citizenship,  and  an  earnest  and  active 
public  spirit  developed  and  perpetuated.  The  changed  conditions 
from  those  which  prevailed  in  the  past  generation,  and  the  great  tide 
of  promiscuous  immigration,  absolutely  requires  the  fostering  of  a 
vigilant  public  spirit  in  the  individual  citizen.  This  is  impossible 
unless  through  the  early  proper  education  of  the  children. 


APPENDIX  III 

DOCUMENTS  RELATING  TO  THE  ENFORCEMENT  OF  CHILD 

LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  LAWS  IN 

ILLINOIS 

(i)  Extracts  from   the   First  Annual    Report1   of  the   Factory 
Inspectors  of  Illinois,  1893,  pp.  8-15 

Child  labor. — Among  the  first  work  of  the  inspectors  was  a  care- 
ful canvass  of  the  sewing,  metal-stamping,  woodworking,  book-binding, 
box,  candy,  tobacco,  and  cigar  trades,  and  the  discharge  of  a  large 
number  of  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age. 

The  requirement  that  an  age  affidavit  be  filed  in  the  workshop 
or  factory,  before  a  child  is  employed,  has  already  made  it  a  general 
practice  on  the  part  of  employers  to  hand  to  every  child  applying 
for  work  an  affidavit  blank  to  be  filled  by  the  parent.  Children  who 
cannot  get  such  blanks  filled  because  not  yet  fourteen  years  old, 
apply  at  one  shop  after  another  until  they  either  find  some  unscrupu- 
lous employer,  or  grow  discouraged  and  give  up  the  quest  for  work. 
Although  some  affidavits  are  undoubtedly  false,  hundreds  of  parents 
have  withdrawn  their  children  from  work  rather  than  forswear  them- 
selves. 

Principally  to  meet  the  contingency  of  perjury,  the  inspectors 
have  required  health  certificates  of  children  markedly  undersized, 
as  well  as  of  those  who  are  diseased  or  deformed 

Where  the  child  was  found  able  to  continue  at  work,  it  was 
granted  a  health  certificate.  In  a  large  majority  of  cases,  however, 
the  examining  physician  endorsed  upon  the  age  affidavit  the  following 
formula: 

"It  is  my  opinion  that  this  child  is  physically  unfit  for  work  at 
his  present  occupation." 

The  employer  was  then  notified  to  discharge  the  child. 

1  Mrs.  Florence  Kelley,  chief  factory  inspector,  see  ante,  pp.  72-84,  299. 
402 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION    403 

It  soon  transpired  that  some  occupations  were  more  injurious 
than  others;  sweat-shops,  tobacco,  cutlery  and  stamping  works  being 
worse,  for  instance,  than  candy-packing  rooms.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  lightest  occupations  are  rendered  injurious  by  long  hours  of  work. 
Therefore  the  prohibition  of  work  for  delicate  children  has  been  rarer 
in  factories  having  good  sanitary  conditions,  and  known  absolutely 
to  obey  the  eight-hour  section  of  the  law,  than  in  factories  concern- 
ing which  there  was  any  doubt  upon  this  point 

The  medical  profession  and  the  law. — The  value  of  this  provision 
of  the  law  [i.  e.,  the  medical  certificate  clause],  however,  depends  upon 
the  intelligent  co-operation  of  the  medical  profession.  For  if  the  cer- 
tificates are  granted  merely  pro  forma,  upon  the  representation  of 
the  employer  of  the  child,  the  object  of  the  law  is  nullified.  The 
physician  who  grasps  the  situation  and  appreciates  the  humane  intent 
of  the  law,  will  always  find  time  to  visit  the  factory  and  see  under 
what  conditions  the  child  is  working.  Otherwise  his  certificate  may 
be  worse  than  valueless,  and  may  work  a  positive  injury  to  a  child 
whom  the  inspectors  are  trying  to  save  from  an  injurious  occupation. 

Thus  a  healthy  child  may  wish  to  enter  a  cracker  bakery,  and 
unless  the  physician  visits  it,  and  sees  the  dwarfish  boys  slowly 
roasting  before  the  ovens,  in  the  midst  of  unguarded  belting  and 
shafting  (a  danger  to  health  which  men  refuse  to  incur),  he  may  be 
inclined  to  grant  the  certificate,  and  thereby  deprive  the  child  of  the 
only  safeguard  to  his  health  which  the  State  affords  him.  Similar 
danger  exists  in  regard  to  tobacco,  picture-frame,  box,  metal-stamping 
and  woodworking  factories. 

Unfortunately  the  law  does  not  require  that  the  physician  shall 
visit  the  workshop  or  factory,  and  see  the  child  at  work,  and  certifi- 
cates have  in  some  instances  been  granted  in  a  disgracefully  reckless 
manner. 

A  delicate  looking  little  girl  was  found  at  work  in  a  badly  venti- 
lated tailor  shop  facing  an  alley,  in  the  rear  of  a  tenement  house. 
The  bad  location  and  atmosphere  of  the  shop,  and  the  child's  stooping 
position  as  she  worked,  led  the  inspector  to  demand  a  health  certifi- 
cate. Examination  at  the  office  revealed  a  bad  case  of  rachitis 
and  antero-posterior  curvature  of  the  spine,  one  shoulder  an  inch 
higher  than  the  other,  and  the  child  decidedly  below  the  standard 


404     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

weight.  Dr.  Milligan  endorsed  upon  the  age  affidavit:  "It  is  my 
opinion  that  this  child  is  physically  incapable  of  work  in  any  tailor 
shop."  The  employer  was  notified  to  discharge  the  child.  A  few 
days  later  she  was  found  at  work  again  in  the  same  place,  and  the 
contractor  produced  the  folio  whig  "certificate,"  written  upon  the 
prescription  blank  of  a  physician  in  good  and  regular  standing: 

(Dated.)  Dr.  M.  Meyerovitz,  179  W.  i2th  st.,  cor.  Jefferson. 

"This  is  to  certify  that  I  examined  Miss  Annie  Cihlar,  and  found 
her  in  a  physiological  condition. 

(Signed,)    "MEYEROVITZ." 

A  test  case  was  made,  to  ascertain  the  value  of  the  medical  certifi- 
cate clause,  and  the  judge  decided  that  this  certificate  was  void,  and 
imposed  a  fine  upon  the  employer  for  failure  to  obtain  a  certificate 
in  accordance  with  the  wording  of  the  law.  The  child  then  went  to 
another  physician,  and  was  given  the  following: 

(Dated.)  Dr.  Frank  J.  Patera,  675  W.  Taylor  st. 

CHICAGO,  November  26,  1893 
"  To  whom  it  may  concern: 

"This  is  to  certify  that  I  have  this  day  examined  Annie  Cihlar, 
and  find  her,  in  my  opinion,  healthy.  She  is  well  developed  for  her 
age,  muscular  system  in  good  condition,  muscles  are  hard  and  solid; 
the  lungs  and  heart  are  normal;  the  muscles  of  right  side  of  trunk 
are  better  developed  than  upon  the  left  side,  which  has  a  tendency  to 
draw  spine  to  that  side,  as  a  result  of  greater  muscular  activity  upon 
that  side.  I  cannot  find  no  desease  [sic]  of  the  spine. 

(Signed,)    "F.  J.  PATERA,  M.D." 

The  sweater,  taught  by  experience,  declined  to  re-engage  this 
child  until  this  certificate  was  approved  by  an  inspector.  The 
inspector  of  course  declined  to  approve  it.  The  charge  made  for 
these  certificates,  and  others  of  the  same  sort,  ranged  from  fifty  cents 
to  two  dollars. 

This  experience  of  illiteracy  and  unscrupulousness  on  the  part 
of  physicians  in  good  and  regular  standing,  indicates  a  need  of 
co-operation  among  the  different  functionaries  of  the  State,  for  there 
is,  so  far  as  known  to  the  inspectors,  no  public  physician  or  body  of 
medical  men  to  whom  children  can  be  sent  for  careful  examination 
free  of  charge.  The  gratis  examinations  made  at  this  office  are  due, 
as  has  already  been  stated,  solely  to  the  generosity  of  Drs.  Milligan 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION     405 

and  Holmes,  and  to  the  faithful  work  of  Dr.  Holmes'  students,  under 
his  direction,  in  making  measurements,  tests,  etc.,  with  no  other 
reward  than  a  widened  knowledge  of  the  physique  of  children  of  the 
wage-earning  class 

Physical  deterioration. — Every  medical  examination  made  in 
this  office  has  been  scheduled  and  filed,  and  the  record  formed  in  this 
manner  is  a  truly  appalling  exposition  of  the  deterioration  of  the 
rising  generation  of  the  wage-earning  class.  The  human  product  of 
our  industry  is  an  army  of  toiling  children  undersized,  rachitic, 
deformed,  predisposed  to  consumption  if  not  already  tuberculous. 
Permanently  enfeebled  by  the  labor  imposed  upon  them  during  the 
critical  years  of  development,  these  children  will  inevitably  fail  in 
the  early  years  of  manhood  and  womanhood.  They  are  now  a 
long  way  on  the  road  to  become  suffering  burdens  upon  society, 
lifelong  victims  of  the  poverty  of  their  childhood  and  the  greed 
which  denies  children  the  sacred  right  of  school  life  and  healthful 
leisure. 

Illiteracy. — The  enforcement  of  Section  Four  of  the  law  brings 
to  light  a  deplorable  amount  of  illiteracy  among  working  children. 
Thus,  in  the  first  case  prosecuted,  that  against  Gustav  Ravitz  for 
employing  a  girl  under  fourteen  years  of  age  in  his  tailor  shop,  it  was 
shown  in  court  that  this  child  had  been  brought  thirteen  years  before 
to  Chicago  from  Poland,  yet  she  could  not  read  or  write  in  any 
language,  nor  speak  English.  Neither  she  nor  her  mother  knew  the 
year  of  the  child's  birth,  and  an  interpreter  was  required  in  speaking 
with  them  both. 

A  little  girl  thirteen  years  of  age  found  at  120  West  Taylor 
street  (Baumgarten's  knee-pants  shop),  sewing  on  buttons  in  the 
bedroom  of  the  sweater's  family,  was  discharged.  She  is  a  Russian 
Jewess  three  years  in  this  country,  and  does  not  know  her  letters. 
She  was  taken  bodily  to  the  Jewish  Training  School  and  entered  as 
a  pupil. 

Greek,  Italian,  Bohemian,  Polish  and  Russian  children  are  con- 
stantly encountered  who  speak  no  English,  hundreds  of  whom  cannot 
read  nor  write  in  any  language.  Children  who  cannot  spell  their 
name  or  the  name  of  the  street  in  which  they  live  are  found  at  work 
every  day  by  the  deputies. 


406     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Where  these  children  are  under  fourteen  years  of  age,  they  are 
turned  over  to  the  compulsory  attendance  officer  of  the  board  of  edu- 
cation, but  for  those  over  the  age  of  fourteen  the  state  prescribes  no 
educational  requirement,  and  unless  they  look  deformed,  undersized, 
or  diseased,  the  inspectors  have  no  ground  upon  which  to  withdraw 
them  from  their  life  of  premature  toil.  And  in  no  case  can  we  insist 
upon  rudimentary  education  for  them. 

In  this  respect  the  Illinois  law  is  far  from  abreast  with  the  laws  of 
Massachusetts  and  New  York.  In  Massachusetts  every  child  must 
attend  some  school  throughout  the  period  during  which  the  public 

schools  are  in  session  until  fourteen  years  of  age New  York 

empowers  her  inspectors  to  order  peremptorily  the  discharge  of  any 
child  under  sixteen  years  of  age  who  cannot  read  and  write  simple 
sentences  in  the  English  language.  Such  a  clause  as  this  last  one 
would  cause  the  transfer  of  many  hundreds  of  Illinois  children  from 
the  factory  to  the  schoolroom. 

Instability. — Nor  do  the  children  who  are  deprived  of  school  life 
receive  at  work  any  technical  training  which  might  in  part  com- 
pensate for  their  loss.  On  the  contrary,  it  has  been  most  forcibly 
shown  that  the  reverse  is  the  case  by  Assistant  Inspector  Stevens, 
of  this  staff,  in  a  valuable  paper  read  before  the  International  Con- 
vention of  Factory  Inspectors.  Mrs.  Stevens  says: 

"A  surprising  thing  developed  by  the  use  of  the  affidavits  is  the 
migratory  method  pursued  by  the  employed  children.  Our  very 
thorough  and  complete  system  of  handling  the  registers,  records  and 
affidavits,  enables  us  to  trace  a  child  changing  its  place  of  work,  and 
also  to  note  the  number  of  changes  in  any  one  place.  I  cite  one 
instance  typical  of  all:  On  August  22,  I  inspected  a  candy  factory, 
where  I  found  eighty  children  under  16.  For  sixty- three  of  these 
affidavits  had  been  filed,  of  which  I  found  forty-three  correct  and 
twenty  worthless  because  improperly  made  out.  The  forty-three 
correct  affidavits  were  stamped,  seventeen  children  unprovided 
with  affidavits  were  sent  home,  and  the  twenty  defective  affidavits 
were  returned  to  the  children,  who  were  given  until  the  next  day  to 
get  them  right.  On  September  8,  another  inspector  visited  this  factory 
and  found  seventy-one  children  at  work  with  sixty-five  affidavits 
awaiting  inspection.  Only  one  of  these  bore  the  stamp  of  my  pre- 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION     407 

vious  inspection,  two  weeks  before.  The  seventy  children  were  a 
new  lot,  and  all  but  one  of  the  children  I  had  found  in  this  place  had 
taken  their  affidavits  and  flitted  off  to  other  work.  In  the  same 
factory  on  September  n — only  three  days  later,  and  one  of  those 
a  Sunday — a  third  inspector  found  119  children,  and,  of  course,  new 
records  and  an  almost  total  change  in  the  register  were  again  necessary. 

"From  such  experiences  as  these  we  are  led  to  hope  that  the 
trouble  employers  will  have  over  the  affidavits,  the  posting  of  new 
records,  the  changing  of  registers,  will  lead  them  to  the  employment 
of  older  help.  Indeed,  this  candy  manufacturer  is  already  seeking 
girls  over  16. 

"This  drifting  about  of  children  at  work  indicates  a  most  de- 
moralized and  demoralizing  condition,  which  should  be  carefully 
studied  by  those  who  argue  in  favor  of  giving  children  employment. 
They  talk  with  insufficient  knowledge  who  say  it  is  an  advantage  to 
boys  and  girls  to  have  'steady  occupation,'  a  'chance  to  learn  a 
trade.'  ....  We  may  well  ask  what  can  be  learned  by  a  boy  or 
girl  who  is  to-day  in  one  factory  of  one  kind  and  to-morrow  in  another 
factory  of  another  kind;  one  week  wrapping  caramels  and  the  next 
week  gilding  picture  frames?  ....  What  the  child  does  learn  is 

instability,  unthrift,  trifling  with  opportunity It  is  a  matter 

of  the  rarest  occurrence  to  find  a  set  of  children  who  have  been  work- 
ing together  two  months  in  any  factory." 

(2)  Extracts  from  the  Second  Annual  Report  of  the  Factory  Inspectors 
of  Illinois,  1894,  pp.  12-21 

Children  under  14  years  of  age. — Although  the  law  prohibits 
absolutely  the  employment  of  any  child  under  14  years  of  age  in 
manufacture,  yet  the  children  under  14  years  can  never  be  wholly 
kept  out  of  the  factpries  and  workshops  until  they  are  kept  in  school. 
At  present  the  school  attendance  law  is  almost  useless,  at  least  in 
Chicago,  where  the  largest  number  of  children  have  been  found  at 
work.  Although  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education  employs  attend- 
ance agents,  yet  children  leave  school  to  sell  papers;  to  carry  cash 
in  stores  and  telegrams  and  messages  in  streets;  to  peddle,  black 
boots,  "tend  the  baby,"  or  merely  to  idle  about.  Unruly  children 


408     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

are  expelled  from  school  to  suit  the  convenience  of  teachers.  Prin- 
cipals of  schools  have  sent  to  the  inspectors  children  n  years  old, 
with  the  written  request  that  permits  be  granted  to  enable  the 
children  to  go  to  work  (in  violation  of  the  factory  law)  because  in 
each  case  the  child  is  "incorrigible."  As  no  factory  can  be  a  better 
place  for  a  child  u  years  old  than  a  reasonably  good  school,  this 
request  voices  the  desire  of  the  Principal  to  be  relieved  of  the  trouble 
of  the  child.  For  all  these  various  reasons,  and  perhaps  also  because 
of  the  want  of  sufficient  school  accommodations,  children  are  freed 
from  school  attendance  at  such  a  rate  that  the  last  school  census, 
1894,  shows  6,887  children  between  the  ages  of  7  and  14  years,  in 
Chicago  alone,  who  attend  no  school. 

Of  these  thousands,  hundreds  are  seeking  work  in  shops  and 
factories,  and  when  they  find  work  and  the  laws  of  the  state  are 
thereby  violated,  the  task  of  prosecution,  which  should  fall  in  part 
at  least  on  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago,  devolves  upon  the 
State  Factory  Inspectors  alone. 

Co-operation  with  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education. — In  three 
months,  September,  October  and  November  this  department  for- 
warded to  the  compulsory  attendance  department  of  the  Chicago 
Board  of  Education,  the  names  and  addresses  of  76  children  under 
14  years  of  age  who  were  found  by  inspectors  during  these  months 
at  work,  in  violation  of  Section  4  of  the  Factory  and  Workshop  law; 
also  the  names  and  addresses  of  27  other  children  who,  in  these  three 
months,  applied  at  the  office  for  permission  to  go  to  work  in  violation 
of  the  law,  and  to  whom  we  refused  age  affidavits  because  they  were 
not  yet  14  years  old. 

These  103  children  under  14  years  of  age,  found  at  work  or  seeking 
work  since  the  present  school  year  began,  have  all  been  seen  and 
talked  with  by  one  or  more  inspectors  of  this  department,  and  we 
therefore  speak  with  knowledge  of  each  case,  when  we  say  that  none 
of  these  children  has  yet  mastered  the  teachings  of  a  primary  school; 
a  large  number  cannot  yet  write  their  own  names;  and  some  of  them 
cannot  yet  speak  the  English  language. 

As  to  the  environment  in  which  the  76  children  were  found  work- 
ing, 30  were  in  sweat  shops,  six  in  cigar  factories  and  15  at  the  stock 
yards;  leaving  only  25  of  the  76  in  occupations  relatively  harmless. 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION    409 

To  rescue  in  three  months  51  children  under  14  years  of  age 
from  nicotine  poisoning,  from  the  miasma  of  the  stock  yards,  and 
from  the  horrible  conditions  of  the  sweat  shops  is  to  accomplish  some- 
thing worth  doing, — if  we  could  be  certain  that  the  rescue  would 
result  in  added  school  life  and  opportunities  for  normal  growth  and 
development  for  the  children.  Unfortunately  our  experience  has  con- 
vinced us  that  we  may  find  the  child  discharged  today  at  work 
tomorrow,  or  next  week,  in  some  other  shop  or  factory. 

The  State  Inspectors  having  obtained  the  conviction  of  25 
employers  upon  33  charges  of  having  in  their  factories  or  workshops 
children  under  14  years  of  age,  while  no  parent  has  been  prosecuted 
under  the  school  laws,  it  is  manifest  that  parents  are  going  unpunished 
who  share  the  responsibility  for  their  children's  unlawful  employment. 

The  Board  of  Education  has  kindly  furnished  us  a  report  of  the 
disposition  made  of  such  of  the  children  reported  by  us  as  received 
the  attention  of  its  attendance  agents  during  September  and  October. 
This  report  shows  that  the  officers  placed  in  school  31  children  out  of 
64  investigated  by  them;  a  little  less  than  one-half.  Upon  the 
remaining  33  cases  the  report  shows  that  several  children  were  not 
found  by  the  attendance  agents;  a  few  were  given  permits  to  work  in 
stores;  some  were  dropped  with  the  remark  that  the  children  were 
"incorrigible";  and  in  15  cases  the  mere  statement  of  the  parent  that 
the  child  was  over  14  was  received  by  the  compulsory  department  as 
sufficient  reason  for  dropping  the  case,  although  in  each  such  case 
the  parent  declined,  in  dealing  with  us,  to  make  affidavit  to  show 
the  child  to  be  more  than  14  years  old. 

Nullification  of  Section  4. — The  humane  intent  of  the  first  clause 
of  Section  4  of  the  workshop  and  factory  law  is  obvious:  that  the 
child  under  14  years  is  to  be  safeguarded  by  the  State  against  employ- 
ment injurious  to  it.  This  intent  is  nullified  if  the  child  is  not  kept 
in  school,  but  drifts  from  one  workshop  into  another,  or  from  the 
factories  into  the  streets. 

We  therefore  recommend  that  the  legislature  make  the  prose- 
cution of  derelict  parents  not  as  it  now  is,  merely  discretionary  with 
the  local  school  boards,  but  mandatory  upon  them;  as  the  prosecution 
of  manufacturers  is  made  mandatory  upon  the  factory  inspectors  by 
Section  9  of  the  factory  law. 


410     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Working  children  not  yet  protected  by  the  law. — Among  the  6,887 
children  shown  by  the  Chicago  school  census  of  1894  to  be  out  of 
school  between  the  ages  of  7  and  14,  there  is  a  horde  of  little  peddlers 
of  fruit,  vegetables  and  other  wares.  These  children  learn  no  trade 
and  form  only  habits  of  roaming  the  street,  irresponsible  and  lawless. 
When  children  are  expelled  from  school  at  n  years  of  age,  and  pro- 
hibited from  working  in  factories  until  14,  they  are  apt  to  fall  into 
this  class.  They  could  be  reached  by  requiring  every  peddler  or 
vendor  under  16  years  of  age  to  obtain  a  license  from  the  State  Fac- 
tory Inspector,  and  prohibiting  all  such  work  for  children  under  the 
age  of  14  years,  and  for  illiterate  children  under  16  years. 

One  evasion  of  the  child  labor  clauses. — One  difficulty  encountered 
in  the  work  of  inspection  seems  to  require  more  than  passing  mention. 
It  often  happens  that  an  inspector,  on  entering  a  cigar  shop  or 
sweat  shop,  sees  a  boy  or  girl  drop  into  a  chair,  put  on  a  cap  or  shawl, 
or  pose  as  a  visitor  only,  a  pretense  steadfastly  supported  by  the 
"boss,"  and  the  other  employes  in  the  room.  The  child's  hands 
may  be  stained  with  nicotine,  or  with  the  fluff  of  the  half-made  gar- 
ment, and  the  inspector  may  see  every  indication  that  the  work 
before  the  child  was  in  its  hands  when  the  door  of  the  shop  was 
opened;  but  the  story  of  the  "visit"  is  told  and  maintained  in  the 
face  of  all  indications  to  the  contrary.  Obviously,  any  court  must 
hesitate  to  convict  the  employer  of  such  a  child  on  the  unsupported 
testimony  of  the  inspector,  where  the  "boss,"  the  child  and  the  other 
employes  of  the  shop  appear  in  court  to  contradict  the  inspector. 
Again,  the  employer  will  insist  that  a  child  is  a  member  of  his  family, 
or  the  child  of  a  neighbor  or  a  relative,  and  is  not  an  employe;  or 
that  the  child  is  waiting  about  to  find  an  errand  to  do  for  some  one 
in  the  place.  An  example  of  this  is  afforded  by  the  report  of  two 
inspectors  who  visited  a  bottling  place  and  found,  hi  the  room  where 
the  work  was  being  carried  on,  three  boys  under  14  years  of  age. 
They  were  told  that  the  boys  "just  waited  around  in  the  hope  of 
getting  an  errand  to  do,  and  a  glass  of  beer  for  doing  it." 

To  enforce  the  law  as  it  now  stands  in  places  where  such  subter- 
fuges as  these  are  resorted  to,  is  difficult  always,  and  sometimes 
impossible.  We,  therefore,  recommend  that  the  child  labor  clauses 
of  the  law  be  so  amended  that  the  presence  of  a  child  in  any  workshop 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION    411 

or  factory  shall  constitute  conclusive  evidence  that  it  is  employed 
therein. 

Children  in  mercantile  establishments. — Many  of  the  more  orderly 
and  intelligent  of  the  6,887  Chicago  children  under  14  years,  who  are 
out  of  school,  and  who  are  kept  out  of  factories  and  workshops  by  the 
law,  find  work  in  stores  or  as  telegraph  and  messenger  boys.  The 
duty  of  extending  to  these  children  the  same  degree  of  protection 
now  afforded  by  the  law  to  the  children  hi  factories  and  workshops 
should  not  need  urging.  In  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania  all 
the  provisions  of  the  factory  law  apply  to  mercantile  establishments. 

Should  Illinois  protect  such  children  less  ?  Is  it  not  a  discrimina- 
tion both  injurious  and  anomalous,  which  leaves  the  little  cash  girl 
without  the  safeguards  afforded  to  her  sister  in  the  factory  or  work- 
shop ?  The  situation  is  illustrated  by  the  Christmas  experience  of 
one  of  their  number.  A  little  girl,  13  years  of  age,  saw,  in  an  evening 
paper  of  December  23d  last,  an  advertisement  for  six  girls  to  work 
in  one  of  the  best  known  candy  stores;  candidates  to  apply  at  seven 
o'clock  the  next  morning  at  a  branch  store,  one  and  one-half  miles 
from  the  child's  home.  To  reach  the  place  in  time  she  spent 
five  cents  of  her  lunch  money  for  car  fare.  Arriving,  she  found  other 
children,  while  but  one  was  wanted.  She  was  engaged,  as  the  bright- 
est of  the  group,  and  sent  to  a  branch  of  the  establishment  at  a  dis- 
tance of  two  and  one-quarter  miles.  This  time  she  walked,  then 
worked  till  midnight,  paying  for  her  dinner  and  going  without  her 
supper.  She  was  paid  fifty  cents  and  discharged,  with  the  expla- 
nation that  she  was  only  required  for  one  day.  No  cars  were  running 
at  that  hour,  and  the  little  girl  walked  across  the  worst  district  of 
Chicago  to  reach  her  home,  and  her  terrified  mother,  at  one  o'clock  on 
Christmas  morning.  No  law  was  violated  in  this  transaction,  not 
even  the  law  which  limits  the  day's  work  of  women  and  girls  to  8 
hours,  as  mercantile  establishments  are  not  yet  subject  to  the  pro- 
visions of  the  factory  law. 

Fortunately  the  development  of  the  pneumatic  tube  has  begun 
to  supersede  cash  children  in  the  more  respectable  of  the  retail  stores ; 
and  the  extension  of  the  workshop  law  to  the  mercantile  establish- 
ment would  therefore  meet  with  less  opposition  now  than  at  any 
previous  time. 


412     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

Children  nominally  over  14  years  old. — Besides  the  children  con- 
fessedly under  14  years  of  age,  there  are  others  whose  parents  do  not 
accurately  know  the  children's  ages,  or  who  perjure  themselves  for 
the  sake  of  obtaining  the  children's  wages.  The  experience  of  the 
notaries  in  this  office  has  convinced  us  that  large  numbers  of  foreign 
parents  keep  no  record  of  births  and  deaths,  and  literally  do  not  know 
what  to  swear  to  in  making  affidavit  to  their  children's  ages.  Many 
parents  have  been  sent  away  from  the  office  with  the  affidavit  unmade 
for  this  reason,  and  others  have  gone  away  and  come  back  after  a 
family  council,  ready  to  testify  to  the  date  there  fixed  upon  as  the 
date  of  the  child's  birth.  But  notaries  are  not  all  scrupulous,  and 
more  than  one  has  been  found  willing  to  fill  out  blanks  to  suit  the 
letter  of  the  law,  leaving  the  ignorant  parent  to  swear  to  an  affidavit 
the  perjury  of  which  he  was  not  intelligent  enough  to  recognize,  the 
whole  performance  remaining  an  empty  form,  so  far  as  the  parent 
and  child  are  concerned. 

Other  parents  deliberately  state  one  age  to  the  inspector  and 
another  to  the  notary,  and  the  sworn  statement  must,  of  course,  be 
accepted  in  the  absence  of  records  by  which  it  could  be  proved  untrue. 

Insufficient  protection  afforded  by  affidavits. — For  these  reasons 
there  are  hundreds  of  children  in  the  factories  today  provided  with 
affidavits  of  legal  age,  whom  we  have  reason  to  regard  as  being  under 
14  years  old,  and  therefore  insufficiently  protected  by  the  law  as  it 
stands.  The  only  step  which  can  be  taken  by  us  to  meet  their  case 
is  the  enforcement  of  the  last  clause  of  Section  4,  which  authorizes 
inspectors  to  require  a  certificate  of  physical  fitness  for  any  child  who 
may  seem  unable  to  perform  the  labor  at  which  he  may  be  engaged. 
This  clause  is  weak,  because  it  permits  any  physician  in  good  and 
regular  standing  to  issue  such  certificates,  and  does  not  prescribe 
that  the  physician  shall  visit  the  workroom  and  see  the  child  at  work, 
or  shall  even  thoroughly  examine  the  child. 

Parents  have  sworn  that  children  are  14  years  of  age,  and  physi- 
cians have  certified  them  physically  capable  of  dangerous  and 
exhausting  work,  while  the  children  themselves  say  that  they  are  but 
ii  or  12  years  old;  their  small  stature  supports  their  assertion,  and 
the  records  of  the  schools  which  they  left  bear  entries  of  statements 
previously  made  by  the  parents  which  correspond  with  the  present 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION    413 

claim  of  the  children.  Boys  weighing  from  56  to  61  pounds  have 
been  thus  sworn  to  and  certified  fit  for  injurious  work,  while  a  normal, 
healthy  school  boy  of  8  years  weighs  from  59  to  63  pounds. 

For  the  further  protection  of  such  children  other  limitations 
should  be  imposed  upon  the  employment  of  children  under  16  years 
of  age. 

Inadequacy  of  Child  Labor  Sections. — Reference  to  the  table  of 
prosecutions  shows  that  three  of  these  eight  companies  have  found 
it  more  profitable  to  undergo  conviction  and  the  payment  of  fines 
than  to  dispense  with  the  employment  of  children  or  to  comply  with 
the  four  labor  requirements  of  the  law. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  employment  of  90  more  children  each, 
in  places  such  as  Kirk's  soap  factory,  Spaulding  &  Merrick's  tobacco 
factory,  the  Crane  Company's  iron  works,  or  Norton  Bros.'  can  fac- 
tory at  Maywood,  where  no  violation  of  the  child  labor  clauses  are 
found,  tends  to  show  that  the  law  as  it  stands  does  not  sufficiently 
protect  children  under  16  years  of  age.  At  Maywood  the  company's 
notary  makes  affidavits,  and  the  company's  physician  certifies  the 
children  fit  for  their  work,  and  an  efficient  clerk  keeps  affidavits,  cer- 
tificates, records,  and  register  corrected  from  day  to  day.  The 
obedience  of  the  corporation  to  the  child  labor  clauses  of  the  law  is 
perfect,  but  the  law  itself  is  so  inadequate  that  it  affords  virtually  no 
protection  to  life,  limb,  health  or  intelligence.  In  the  great  factory 
at  Maywood,  through  all  the  heat  of  last  summer,  little  boys  worked 
among  unguarded  shafting  and  belting,  in  the  fumes  of  the  soldering, 
or  crouched  on  a  shelf  in  every  crooked  and  unwholesome  posture, 
poking  sharp-edged  circles  of  tin  through  the  holes  of  the  shelf;  or 
were  seated  at  stamp  and  die  machines  where  every  fall  of  the  stamp 
is  a  menace  to  the  fingers  and  hands.  Some  of  these  children, 
Italians,  Bohemians  and  Poles,  speak  no  English,  and  can  not  under- 
stand the  warnings  given  them  as  to  the  dangers  which  surround 
them;  some  of  them  can  not  read  or  write  in  any  language 

Children  at  the  stock  yards. — Another  illustration  of  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  the  law  as  it  stands  is  the  presence  of  302  boys  and  18  girls 
in  eight  establishments  at  the  stock  yards 

Some  of  these  children  are  boys  who  cut  up  the  animals  as  soon 
as  the  hide  is  removed,  little  butchers  working  directly  in  the  slaughter 


414     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

house,  at  the  most  revolting  part  of  the  labor  performed  in  the  stock 
yards.  These  children  stand,  ankle  deep,  in  water  used  for  flooding 
the  floor  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  off  blood  and  refuse  into  the 
drains;  they  breathe  air  so  sickening  that  a  man  not  accustomed  to  it 
can  stay  in  the  place  but  a  few  moments;  and  their  work  is  the  most 
brutalizing  that  can  be  devised. 

Other  boys  cut  bones  at  a  buzz  saw,  placed  within  fifty  feet  of  the 
drying  racks  where  skulls  and  horns  are  scorching  over  a  flame,  and 
the  smell  of  the  smoking  bones  and  rags  of  hide  excels  in  horror  all 
the  smells  for  which  the  stock  yards  are  notorious.  Here,  in  a  dark, 
foul  passage,  young  boys  work  at  a  machine  of  the  most  dangerous 
character,  an  unguarded  buzz  saw.  No  criminal  in  the  United  States 
could  be  punished  by  an  hour's  imprisonment  in  such  a  place  without 
a  horrified  protest  ringing  through  the  land.  But  these  young  vic- 
tims are  kept  there  by  their  employers,  day  after  day,  and  no  voice 
is  raised  in  their  behalf.  Nor  is  there  any  excuse  for  the  existence 
of  such  surroundings.  With  the  facilities  for  ventilation  and  deodor- 
izing that  are  readily  available,  this  passageway  could  be  made 
inoffensive.  Meanwhile  the  employment  of  any  human  being  in 
such  a  place  is  an  outrage  and  should  be  summarily  stopped,  but  the 
law  confers  upon  the  inspectors  no  power  to  stop  it. 

(3)  Extracts  from  the  Third  Annual  Report  of  the  Factory  Inspectors 
of  Illinois,  1895,  pp.  8-42 

Child  labor. — The  legislature  of  1895  made  no  change  in  the  fac- 
tory law,  the  child  labor  provisions  of  which  are,  therefore,  the  same 
as  in  previous  reports,  and  apply  only  to  children  engaged  in  manu- 
facture; the  employment  of  children  in  offices,  laundries,  and  mer- 
cantile occupations  being  still  wholly  without  legislative  restriction. 
The  good  effects  of  the  law  become  more  manifest  each  year,  as  well 
as  the  urgent  need  of  extending  it. 

The  percentage  of  children  to  total  employes  has  fallen  con- 
spicuously in  the  brief  time  during  which  the  law  has  been  in  force. 
In  1893  the  percentage  was  8.5;  in  1894  it  was  6. 2;  in  1895  it  is  4.  5. 
During  the  panic  of  1893,  when  the  total  number  of  employes  fell 
to  its  lowest,  and  but  76,224  persons  were  found  at  work  by  the 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION    415 

inspectors  there  were  6,456  children  under  16  years  of  age.  In  1895 
there  were  8,642  children,  while  the  total  number  of  employes  found 
at  work  rose  to  i9o,3'6q.  In  1893  there  were  85  children  under  16 
years  of  age  in  the  thousand  employes;  in  1895  the  number  had 
fallen  to  45  in  the  thousand. 

The  standard  of  size  and  health  of  the  children  employed  has 
visibly  improved  everywhere  outside  of  the  sweatshops;  and  the 
change  in  this  respect  is  conspicuous  when  a  comparison  is  made  with 
the  children  employed  in  laundries  and  department  stores  where 
the  minimum  age  is  not  yet  prescribed  by  law 

Children  in  sweatshops The  report  of  this  department 

for  1894  showed  that  the  721  children  found  in  the  sweatshops  of 
Chicago  during  that  year  were  illiterate,  while  a  majority  of  them 
could  not  speak  English.  In  this  respect  there  has  been  no  improve- 
ment. That  statement  applies  equally  to  the  1,307  children  found 
at  work  in  these  shops  in  1895. 

No  staff  of  ten  deputies,  with  inspections  to  make  throughout  the 
State,  can  successfully  watch  sweatshops  employing  1,307  children, 
with  employers  and  parents  conniving  to  evade  and  violate  the  law, 
and  the  city  Board  of  Education  declining  to  enforce  the  compulsory 
education  law  by  prosecution.  It  cannot  be  claimed  that  this  policy 
of  inaction  of  the  Board  of  Education  is  without  bearing  on  the 
children  recorded  as  over  14  years  of  age,  for  it  is  a  notorious  fact 
(although  legal  evidence  may  be  hard  to  obtain)  that  the  stature  of 
the  children,  and  the  entries  of  the  public  school  registers,  show  at 
least  a  part  of  these  children  to  range  in  reality  from  10  to  14  years. 

Nothing  effective  can  be  done  to  redeem  the  sweated  trades  or 
the  condition  of  the  children  employed  in  them,  unless  the  strong 
arm  of  the  law  comes  to  the  assistance  of  the  unfortunate  children 
by  prohibiting  them  from  crowding  into  these  shops,  at  least  until 
they  have  learned  to  read  and  write  simple  English. 

In  no  case  has  a  child  of  purely  American  parentage  been  found 
at  work  among  the  illiterate  children  of  the  sweatshops. 

The  objection  of  a  certain  sort  of  immigrant  parent  to  sending 
his  children  to  school  after  they  are  old  enough  to  earn  25  cents  a 
week  is  a  purely  sordid  one;  and  no  other  measure  seems  to  offer  so 
trenchant  an  answer  to  it  as  the  assurance  that  he  cannot  put  his 


4i6     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

child  to  work  unless  it  has  first  received  from  school  at  least  as  much 
benefit  as  is  embodied  in  a  rudimentary  knowledge  of  the  English 
language. 

Children  in  the  glass  works  at  Alton. — The  child  labor  sections  of 
the  law  have  proved  of  great  benefit  to  the  children  employed  in  glass 
works.  Their  condition  when  the  law  went  into  effect  was  more 
pitiable  than  that  of  any  other  working  children  in  this  State.  It 
was  a  matter  of  very  great  difficulty  to  get  the  law  obeyed  in  this 
industry,  because  some  of  the  glass  companies  maintained  that  the 
work  of  young  children  was  absolutely  indispensable  to  the  manu- 
facture of  bottles  and  other  light  wares.  The  inspectors  insisted  that 
the  children  under  14  years  of  age  must  be  replaced  by  older  ones,  or 
by  some  technical  improvement.  The  Illinois  Glass  Company,  at 
Alton,  maintained  that  this  was  impossible.  This  company  was  so 
certain  of  the  impossibility  of  conducting  its  business  in  compliance 
with  the  law,  that  a  special  investigation  of  the  condition  of  its  works 
and  of  the  children  employed  in  them  was  ordered  in  January,  1895; 
all  the  other  glass  companies  in  the  State  having  at  that  time  taken 
steps  to  comply  with  the  requirements  of  the  law. 

The  following  report  sets  forth  the  result  of  the  special  investi- 
gation. Since  it  was  made,  the  company  has  accomplished  that 
which  it  had  declared  to  be  impossible;  making  such  a  rearrangement 
of  its  "glory-holes"  as  enabled  it  to  dispense  with  a  large  number 
of  the  smallest  boys.  While  there  are  still  children  at  work  who  are 
either  dwarfish  or  have  perjured  affidavits,  the  number  of  larger 
boys  has  been  increased,  and  260  affidavits  are  kept  on  file.  The 
Illinois  Glass  Company,  the  largest  employer  of  child  labor  in  the 
State,  now  finds  it  possible  to  comply  absolutely  with  the  child  labor 
provisions  of  the  law 

Hours  of  children. — Until  the  legislature  acts  upon  the  Court's 
suggestion  and  passes  a  law  limiting  the  hours  of  minors,  the  children 
are  the  direst  sufferers  under  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  which 
sets  aside  the  only  legislative  restriction  in  this  State  upon  the  hours 
of  labor.  [In  the  case  of  Ritchie  v.  The  People,  155  III.  98,  the 
eight  hour  law  had  been  declared  unconstitutional  in  1893.} 

Again,  as  before  the  factory  law  was  enacted,  the  employer  may 
extend  the  working  day  of  his  employes  without  let  or  hindrance, 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION    417 

and  among  these  employes  may  be  delicate  little  children.  There  is 
no  more  protection  for  them  against  the  cruel  exaction  of  overtime 
work  than  there  is  for  the  strongest  man  employed.  If  the  child  has 
reached  its  i4th  birthday,  and  the  employer  is  armed  with  the  parent's 
affidavit  to  that  effect,  the  child  may  be  lawfully  required  to  work 
20  hours  at  a  stretch. 

No  law  of  Illinois  is  violated  when  little  lads  work  all  night  in 
rolling  mills  where  nails  are  made;  when  little  boys,  just  14  years  of 
age  according  to  the  parent's  affidavit  (but  10  years  old  or  less  if 
judged  by  weight  and  size),  fetch  and  carry  bottles  all  night  in  glass 
works,  trotting  from  furnace  to  cooling  oven  and  back  again  at  the 
call  of  the  blower,  in  the  glow  of  the  melter's  fires;  then  going  out 
into  the  cold,  dark  night  to  stumble,  ill-clad  and  shivering,  to  their 
homes.  It  is  the  tradition  of  these  two  occupations  that  their  trade 
life  is,  and  has  always  been,  among  the  shortest  hi  the  skilled  trades. 

In  the  sweatshops  of  Chicago,  both  men  and  girls  faint  from 
exhaustion  at  their  machines,  and  during  the  "rush"  season  in  the 
garment  trades  this  is  no  rare  occurrence.  Yet  when  a  girl  in  a 
sweatshop  is  unable  to  ply  her  machine,  by  foot  power,  from  seven 
in  the  morning  to  four  the  next  morning,  the  sweater  tells  her — and 
truthfully — that  there  are  others  who  will  take  her  place  and  do  his 
work  on  his  terms 

In  Chicago  children  are  employed  long  hours  in  two  occupations 
which  do  not  come  under  the  factory  law — the  mercantile  establish- 
ments and  the  laundries.  In  many  sections  of  this  city  the  stores 
are  kept  open  five  evenings  in  the  week,  and  the  children  employed 
in  these  stores  work  10  and  n  hours  a  day.  Stores  having  special 
holiday  trade  employ  thousands  of  children  during  the  season,  and 
exact  of  them  the  same  number  of  extra  hours  that  are  exacted  from 
the  older  employes.  On  Christmas  Eve  these  children  were  dis- 
missed from  the  great  department  stores  at  hours  ranging  from  10:45 
P.M.  to  12:20  A.M.  During  the  working  days  of  the  two  preceding 
weeks,  these  children  had  been  obliged  to  be  alertly  on  duty  from  10 
to  12  hours  per  day.  It  is  believed  by  all  who  have  investigated 
holiday  employment  of  children  that  permanent  injury  to  the  children 
results,  in  many  ways,  from  it;  and  that  no  real  gain  accrues,  not 
even  temporary  alleviation  of  financial  stringency  in  their  homes. 


4i8     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

The  employment  is  for  a  very  short  time,  and  the  pay  received  is 
very  little.  The  child,  demoralized  by  the  taste  of  money-earning, 
spends  days  and  weeks  in  seeking  another  place,  not  understanding 
that  no  employer  wants  her  until  the  holiday  season  comes  around 
again.  Thus,  for  a  few  days'  earnings  she  sacrifices  a  winter's  school 
life.  The  physical  strain  of  the  work  throughout  long  hours,  for 
which  there  has  been  no  gradual  preparation,  exhausts  her  vitality; 
and,  in  this  exhausted  condition,  overheated  by  running  in  the  warm 
air  of  the  store,  she  goes  out  into  the  cold  night.  When  this  has 
been  done  night  after  night,  throughout  the  holiday  season,  the  child 
may  have  sacrificed,  in  addition  to  her  winter's  school  life,  her  chance 
for  normal  development  into  healthy  womanhood. 

In  laundries,  the  only  limit  to  the  hours  of  work  of  children  seems 
to  be  the  limit  of  their  usefulness.  It  has  been  found  that  their  little 
fingers  become  expert  at  "marking,"  and  at  this  they  are  much  em- 
ployed, although  they  are  also  found  at  mangles  and  other  dangerous 
machines  used  in  steam  laundries.  Marking  is  one  of  the  occupations 
which  superficial  observers  class  as  "light  and  easy,"  but  handling 
soiled  clothing  on  its  way  to  the  washing  machine  is  not  fit  work  for 
any  child.  Apart  from  the  unfitness,  there  is  great  danger  of  infec- 
tion; much  greater  in  the  case  of  young  children  exhausted  by  over- 
work in  the  heat  and  steam  of  the  laundry  than  in  the  case  of  older 
persons.  Marking  is,  unfortunately,  one  of  the  branches  of  laundry 
work  which  begins  early  in  the  day  and  holds  far  out  into  the  night. 
The  following  complaint  was  received  at  this  office  on  June  3,  1895: 
"Goodhart's  laundry  has  a  number  of  little  girls  who  don't  look  to 
be  12  years  old.  They  worked  last  Saturday  from  7 : 30  in  the  morn- 
ing until  Sunday  morning  at  3  o'clock.  Their  mothers  were  wild 
about  them."  As  laundries  do  not  come  under  the  Factory  Act,  the 
inspectors  could  do  nothing  in  this  case — not  even  order  the  discharge 
of  the  children  under  14  years  of  age.  It  was  not,  therefore,  surprising 
that  a  second  complaint  was  received  concerning  this  plant,  dated 
September  9,  1895,  stating  that  "children  under  n  years  old  are 
working  there,  and  are  made  to  work  overtime  until  9  o'clock  every 
night."  These  conditions  prevail  in  all  laundries  employing  children. 

In  every  trade  and  occupation,  including  those  where  the  work 
is  not,  in  itself,  injurious,  it  is  observed  that  the  places  in  which 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION     419 

children  are  employed  in  large  numbers  are  those  where  the  worst 
general  conditions  for  the  employes  prevail 

In  all  computation  of  the  hours  of  working  children  in  Chicago, 
this  time  spent  in  going  to  and  from  the  place  of  employment  must 
be  taken  into  account.  The  journey  is  generally  some  miles  long, 
and  not  infrequently  the  small  wage  of  the  child  necessitates  its  walk- 
ing. The  hours  needed  for  the  sleep  of  a  young  child  are  thus  seriously 
curtailed.  The  exhausted  children  from  the  stores  reach  their  homes 
at  any  time  from  10  P.M.  to  2  A.M.,  according  to  the  hour  of  leaving 
work  and  the  distance  of  the  home  from  the  store.  In  an  investiga- 
tion of  the  employment  of  children  under  14  years  of  age  in  a  pickle 
factory  in  Bowmanville,  ....  the  inspector  found  that  these  chil- 
dren, aged  from  10  to  14  years,  were  obliged  to  leave  their  homes 
before  4  o'clock  in  the  morning  in  order  to  be  at  the  factory  when  the 
whistle  blew  for  the  work  to  begin,  which  was  at  6:30. 

To  the  physical  and  moral  deterioration  of  children  consequent 
upon  this  failure  to  regulate  the  hours  of  their  work  must  be  added 
the  educational  loss.  Their  hours  of  labor  being  unrestricted,  the 
poor  opportunity  is  thereby  rendered  illusory  which  is  offered  through 
the  night  school  to  the  working  child  in  more  progressive  States,  in 
which  the  hours  of  employment  of  minors  are  fixed  by  law.  It  fre- 
quently happens  in  Illinois  that  a  weary  child  has  no  sooner  begun  to 
attend  night  school  than  a  notice  is  posted  in  the  factory  that  failure 
to  work  throughout  the  evening  will  be  followed  by  discharge. 
Where  evening  work  is  not  required,  the  long  day  of  ten  hours, 
followed  by  the  journey  home  on  foot,  so  exhausts  the  child  that  it 
creeps  into  the  evening  school  utterly  incapable  of  mental  exercise. 
The  experience  of  teachers  of  night  schools  is  that  it  is  impossible  to 
keep  children  awake  over  their  books  who  have  been  shut  up  in  store 
and  factory  through  the  day 

The  medical  certificate  clause. — Section  4  of  the  law  provides  that 
the  inspectors  may  demand  a  certificate  of  physical  fitness  from  some 
regular  physician  of  good  standing  in  case  of  children  who  may  appear 
to  them  physically  unable  to  perform  the  labor  at  which  they  are 
engaged. 

The  enforcement  of  this  clause  was  expected  to  effect  the  removal 
from  factories  and  workshops  of  the  large  number  of  children  who 


420     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

are  deformed  or  manifestly  diseased.  Persistent  enforcement  of  it 
was  also  expected  to  enable  the  inspectors  to  obtain  the  discharge  of 
all  children  engaged  in  occupations  injurious,  whether  because  of  the 
nature  of  the  materials  used,  or  of  the  temperature,  or  of  the  processes 
carried  on,  or  for  any  other  reason.  Incidentally,  parents  inclined 
to  perjury  were  to  be  checkmated  by  the  requirement  of  a  certificate 
of  physical  fitness  for  all  children  conspicuously  undersized. 

Unfortunately,  the  statute  did  not  empower  the  inspector  to 
prescribe  who  shall  make  the  certificate,  nor  that  the  making  of  it 
shall  be  preceded  by  the  examination  of  the  child  or  of  its  place  of 
work.  It  was  probably  assumed  by  the  legislature  which  enacted 
the  statute  that  these  essentials  could  be  left  to  the  faithfulness  and 
honorof  themedical  profession.  Theexperience  of  twoand  a  half  years 
compels  us  to  the  conclusion  that  this  confidence  was  misplaced. 

The  medical  certificate  clause  has  been  rendered  nugatory  by  the 
reckless  manner  in  which  dispensary  and  "company"  physicians 
have  issued  certificates  gratis  to  all  comers,  irrespective  of  the  physical 
condition  of  the  child  or  the  injurious  nature  of  its  occupation.  In 
no  case  known  to  the  inspectors  has  a  child  for  whom  a  certificate 
has  been  required  failed  to  obtain  one,  either  from  the  sources  men- 
tioned, or  from  some  ignorant  practitioner,  upon  payment  of  a  sum 
ranging  from  25  cents  to  $2. 

When  the  contractor  in  a  sweatshop  has  been  prohibited  from 
employing  a  child  until  a  certificate  is  obtained,  it  has  been  only  a 
question  where  the  nearest  unscrupulous  practitioner  has  his  office. 
Sooner  or  later  one  is  found  who  issues  a  certificate,  correct  in  form, 
but  bearing  no  relation  to  the  child's  size,  age,  physical  condition, 
or  to  the  nature  of  the  occupation 

The  Compulsory  Education  law  ....  interlocks  so  closely 
with  the  child  labor  provisions  of  the  factory  law  that  no  report  on 
the  child  labor  found  in  this  State  would  be  complete,  which  did  not 
give  full  weight  to  this  intimate  relation  of  the  two  laws  and  their 
enforcement. 

[The  text  of  the  Compulsory  Education  law  is  omitted;  for 
its  provisions  are  summarized  in  chap,  v,  ante,  pp.  69-88.] 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  law  requires  but  16  weeks  of  school 
attendance,  of  which  but  12  weeks  need  be  consecutive.  This  leaves 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION     421 

36  weeks  free  in  each  year,  during  which  parents-  and  employers  are 
subject  to  the  temptation  to  put  an  idle  child  at  work  in  violation  of 
the  factory  law. 

The  enforcement  of  the  meager  provisions  of  the  Compulsory 
Education  law  is  left  to  the  option  of  local  authorities.  The  inequal- 
ity which  grows  out  of  this  option  is  well  illustrated  by  the  condition 
of  the  children  in  two  manufacturing  cities  in  opposite  ends  of 
the  State.  In  Alton,  in  January,  1895,  there  were  found  .... 
200  children  under  the  age  of  14  years,  at  work  in  a  single  establish- 
ment. Their  employment  was  in  direct  violation  of  both  the  Com- 
pulsory Education  law  and  the  Factory  act.  The  school  board  of 
Alton  had  not  appointed  a  truant  officer  or  made  any  attempt  to 
enforce  the  Compulsory  Education  law 

The  attitude  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago  is  illustrated 
by  two  passages  from  its  report  for  the  year  ending  June  28,  1895. 
In  the  course  of  his  report  to  the  Board,  Dr.  Bluthardt,  Superin- 
tendent of  Compulsory  Education,  says:  "The  work  of  the  Com- 
pulsory Department,  shown  by  the  yearly  report,  placed  over  3,700 
children  in  school;  including  many  brought  in  for  the  first  tune,  and 
truants  who  have  dropped  out  from  time  to  time.  The  same  spirit 
has  been  carried  out  as  in  the  past,  and  the  only  forces  brought  to  bear 
have  been  persuasion  and  watchfulness — no  cases  of  prosecution  having 
been  made."  In  the  list  of  accepted  excuses  occur  the  following: 

Indifference  (parent's  carelessness) 160 

Not  vaccinated  (parent's  neglect) 237 

Working  at  home 262 

With  such  excuses  accepted  by  the  Board  of  Education  for 
the  non-attendance  of  children  of  compulsory  school  age  and 
without  prosecution,  the  Factory  Inspectors  cannot  hope  to 
keep  all  the  children  under  14  years  of  age  out  of  the  factories  and 
workshops. 

In  the  same  report,  Mr.  Albert  G.  Lane,  Superintendent  of 
Schools,  says:  "The  fifteen  truant  agents,  appointed  by  the  Board 
of  Education  to  visit  different  sections  of  the  city  and  to  notify 
parents  of  children  who  do  not  attend  school  that  the  law  requires 
them  to  do  so,  have  done  the  best  they  could  under  the  existing 


422     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

conditions.  The  law  is  ineffective,  because  no  penalty  can  be 
enforced.  Some  good  is  accomplished  by  serving  notices  upon 
parents  that  the  children  should  attend  school,  but  wherever  parents 
are  indifferent  or  deliberately  keep  their  children  from  school  no  effort 
has  been  made  to  enforce  the  law." 

The  question  naturally  arises:  How  can  the  Board  of  Education 
know  that  no  penalty  can  be  enforced,  when  no  case  has  ever  been 
tried  under  the  law  and  no  judicial  decision  obtained  ? 

It  is  in  part,  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  "no  effort  has  been  made 
to  enforce  the  law"  by  the  Board  of  Education,  that  the  inspectors 
of  this  department  were,  in  1895,  under  the  disagreeable  necessity 
of  prosecuting  56  employers  upon  the  charge  of  employing  80  children 
under  the  age  of  14  years.  Even  where  we  order  the  discharge  of  the 
child,  forward  its  name  to  the  Board  of  Education,  and  prosecute  the 
employer,  we  too  often  find  the  same  child  at  work  in  a  second  or 
third  shop,  still  under  the  required  age.  During  the  year,  one  boy 
was  the  cause  of  our  prosecuting  two  different  employers  in  less  than 
two  months.  The  parents  of  this  boy  were  not  prosecuted  by  the 
Board  of  Education,  though  they  violated  the  Compulsory  Education 
law  every  day  that  the  boy  worked. 

It  would  strengthen  the  efforts  of  this  department  very  much,  if 
all  the  children  were  kept  in  school  even  the  16  weeks  per  annum  which 
the  law  requires,  and  would  remedy  the  injustice  of  holding  the 
employer  alone  responsible,  and  letting  the  parent  go  unpunished, 
who  certainly  shares  the  moral  responsibility  and  ought  to  be  held 
to  it  under  the  Compulsory  Education  law. 

So  long  as  we  are  without  a  stringent  Compulsory  Education 
law  and  local  boards  able  and  willing  to  enforce  it,  we  shall  have 
children  doing  the  work  of  men  and  women  while  they  should  be  in 
school,  and  growing  up  unable  to  read  and  write,  as  we  find  children 
in  the  Illinois  factories  and  workshops  every  day. 

While  the  most  helpless  children  are  left  unprotected  by  the 
non-enforcement  of  the  Compulsory  Education  law,  poverty-stricken 
parents  and  sordid  employers  will  leave  them  in  ignorance  for  the  sake 
of  the  money  which  can  be  gained  at  the  cost  of  the  children.  Nor 
can  any  effort  of  the  factory  inspectors,  however  faithful  and  pains- 
taking, make  good  the  wrong  done  the  children. 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION    423 

We  therefore  again  recommend  that  the  prosecution  of  derelict 
parents  be  made  mandatory  upon  local  school  boards,  as  the  prose- 
cution of  manufacturers  who  employ  children  under  14  years  of  age 
is  made  mandatory  upon  the  Factory  Inspector,  by  Section  9  of  the 
Factory  law. 

The  failure  of  the  school  authorities  to  supply  school  accommo- 
dations for  the  children  who  are  ready  and  willing  to  go  to  school 
aggravates  the  failure  to  enforce  the  compulsory  attendance  law  in 
some  places.  In  Alton,  while  200  children  under  14  years  of  age  were 
at  work  in  the  glass  works,  there  were  on  the  list  of  applicants  for 
admission  to  the  schools  240  children  in  excess  of  the  seats  provided. 
In  Chicago  the  report  of  the  Board  of  Education  for  1895  (p.  42) 
shows  that  "the  number  of  children  in  rented  rooms  at  the  close  of 
the  year  1894  was  9,661,  and  at  the  close  of  1895  it  was  11,674. 
The  number  of  children  in  half-day  divisions  at  the  close  of  1894  was 
14,086;  at  the  close  of  1895  it  was  17,545."  In  addition  to  this,  the 
latest  school  census  of  Chicago  showed  6,887  children  of  school  age 
who  were  attending  no  school  whatever. 

In  a  single  ward  of  Chicago  (the  igth)  the  seating  capacity  of  the 
four  public  schools  is  3,437,  or  4,135  less  than  the  number  of  children 
of  school  age  (7,572),  as  shown  by  the  school  census  of  1894.  Thus 
less  than  50  per  cent  of  the  children  of  school  age  in  this  ward  are 
provided  with  seats  in  the  public  schools.  These  children  cannot 
overflow  into  the  schools  of  adjacent  wards,  for  these  also  lack  ade- 
quate accommodations.  This  igth  ward,  with  the  three  wards 
adjoining  to  the  south  and  west  (the  7th,  8th  and  gth),  form  a  vast 
working  people's  district.  The  residents  are  chiefly  Italians,  Bohe- 
mians, and  Russian  Jews,  and  among  them  are  thousands  of  wage- 
earning  children.  These  children  of  immigrant  toilers  need  the 
best  educational  facilities  which  any  American  city  can  provide,  if 
they  are  to  develop  into  useful  citizens  of  value  to  the  industrial  life 
of  their  generation. 

The  ignorance  of  working  children. — The  logical  product  of  the 
educational  policy  of  Illinois  is  the  presence  in  the  factories  and  work- 
shops of  a  large  body  of  ignorant  and  illiterate  children. 

Some  of  the  children  who  come  to  this  office  to  have  age  affidavits 
made,  born  in  Chicago  and  brought  up  under  the  shadow  of  the  public 


424     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

schools,  cannot  write  their  names,  and  many  who  can  do  this  can 
write  nothing  else.  In  general,  it  is  true  that  children  taken  as 
witnesses  from  the  stockyards,  the  sweatshops  and  the  tenement 
house  cigar  shops,  cannot  write  or  read  a  simple  sentence  in  the 
English  language.  In  the  course  of  the  prosecutions  carried  on 
during  the  present  year,  children  have  been  called  as  witnesses  who, 
born  in  Chicago  or  brought  here  in  infancy,  yet  cannot  answer  in 
English  such  simple  questions,  as  "What  is  your  name?"  "Where 
do  you  live?"  "Do  you  know  how  old  you  are?"  "What  is  the 
name  of  the  firm  you  are  working  for?"  Hence  the  evidence  of  the 
children  is  frequently  taken  through  a  Polish,  Russian  or  Bohemian 
interpreter 

All  the  illiterate  children  ought  to  be  turned  out  of  the  factories 
and  workshops  and  into  schools  for  purposes  of  instruction.  But, 
besides  this  immediate  purpose,  there  is  another  important  point  to 
be  gained  by  requiring  a  certain  grade  of  intelligence  of  all  children 
before  permitting  them  to  go  to  work,  viz. :  the  re-inforcement  of  the 
age  limit. 

In  order  to  enforce  the  prohibition  of  the  employment  of  children 
under  the  age  of  14  years,  the  statute  requires  that  before  any  child 
goes  to  work,  there  must  first  be  obtained  and  placed  on  file  an 
affidavit  made  by  the  parent  or  guardian  stating  the  name,  date  and 
place  of  birth  of  every  child  employed  under  the  age  of  16  years. 
This  provision  is  intended  to  throw  upon  the  parent,  where  it  properly 
belongs,  the  responsibility  for  the  statement,  under  oath,  of  the  exact 
age  of  the  child.  In  the  case  of  intelligent  and  conscientious  parents 
this  provision  works  well,  and  enforced  by  prosecution  of  all  manu- 
facturers found  employing  children  without  affidavits,  has  done  much 
to  raise  the  standard  of  age  and  stature  of  the  children  employed  in 
factories  and  workshops  compared  with  those  in  mercantile  occupa- 
tions where  the  minimum  age  of  work  is  not  yet  prescribed  by  law. 
But  the  provision  breaks  down  in  the  case  of  the  very  children  who 
need  it  most,  the  children  of  illiterate  and  degraded  parents. 

Many  of  the  parents  who  come  to  this  office  to  make  affidavit 
to  the  age  of  their  children  do  not  definitely  know  the  age;  or,  if  they 
know  it,  they  can,  for  lack  of  available  birth  records,  falsify  it  without 
fear  of  detection.  Many  parents  are  ready  to  swear  to  any  state- 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION    425 

ment,  to  trust  the  notary  to  fill  the  blank  in  any  way  which  will 

enable  the  child  to  go  to  work  at  once Whenever  there  is 

reasonable  doubt  as  to  the  age  of  children,  the  parents  are  sent  away 
with  the  affidavit  unmade;  but  the  first  notary  to  whom  they  go  after 
leaving  the  office  usually  fills  the  blank,  and  we  have  no  authority  to 
dispute  its  correctness,  when  we  subsequently  find  it  in  a  shop. 
Parents  have  sworn  that  children  were  14  years  of  age,  though  the 
children  themselves  said  they  were  but  n  or  12  years  old;  their  small 
stature  supported  their  assertion  and  the  records  of  the  schools  they 
left  bear  entries  of  statements  previously  made  by  the  parents  which 
correspond  with  the  claim  of  the  children.  Some  parents  deliber- 
ately state  one  age  to  the  inspectors  and  another  to  the  notary 
who  makes  the  affidavit,  and  the  sworn  statement  must  be 
accepted  in  the  absence  of  birth  records  by  which  it  could  be 
proved  untrue 

(4)  Extracts  from  the  Fourth  Annual  Report  of  the  Factory  Inspectors 
of  Illinois,  1896,  pp.  10-30 

Child  labor. — The  child  labor  provisions  of  the  law  have  not  been 
amended  or  altered  since  it  was  enacted  in  1893,  and  apply  only  to 
manufacturing  establishments,  factories  and  workshops.  Their 
object  is  to  prohibit  the  employment  of  children  under  14  years  of 
age  in  manufacture.  There  is  no  provision  for  limiting  the  employ- 
ment of  illiterate  children,  or  safeguarding  life  and  limb  of  those  who 
have  reached  14  years.  The  clause  which  provides  for  health  certifi- 
cates is  nugatory.  There  is  no  restriction  upon  the  hours  of  labor. 
When  children  14  years  old  are  equipped  with  age  affidavits  and 
health  certificates,  there  is  no  power  in  any  officer  of  the  State  to 
regulate  the  nature  of  the  work  selected  for  them,  or  the  conditions 
under  which  the  work  is  performed.  They  may  be  required  to  work 
all  night,  or  seven  days  in  the  week,  and  in  the  most  dangerous 
occupations 

Education. — The  educational  status  of  the  children  found  at 
work  shows  no  improvement.  From  garment  and  cigar  shops 
children  are  still  taken  into  court  as  witnesses  in  factory  cases  who 
speak  no  English,  some  of  them  having  lived  several  years  in  the 


426     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

State,  in  dense  foreign  colonies;  and  going  to  school,  if  at  all,  where 
English  is  not  taught. 

The  compulsory  school  law  remains  a  dead  letter,  no  prosecution 
ever  having  been  undertaken,  so  far  as  is  known  to  this  department, 
for  its  enforcement  by  any  board  of  education.  The  weakness  of  its 
provisions  continues  to  serve  as  excuse  for  continued  failure  to  prose- 
cute parents  for  violating  it. 

It  is  therefore  still  the  unpleasant  duty  of  the  inspectors  to 
prosecute  employers  for  hiring  children  under  14  years  of  age,  in 
violation  of  the  factory  law.  It  is  manifestly  unfair  to  let  parents 
go  unpunished  who  share  with  employers  the  responsibility  for  this 
illegal  work,  and  who  should  be  held  responsible  under  the  compul- 
sory attendance  law,  as  manufacturers  are  held  under  the  factory  law. 
This  duty  properly  devolves  upon  both  the  inspectors  and  the  local 
school  authorities,  and  neither  can  perform  it  effectively  alone. 

Until  there  are  schools  for  the  children,  and  a  compulsory  edu- 
cation law  that  is  enforced,  the  factory  inspectors  cannot  keep  all  the 
children  under  14  years  out  of  factories  and  workshops.  While  an 
effective  factory  law  is  the  best  possible  supplement  to  a  good  com- 
pulsory education  law,  neither  can  take  the  place  of  the  other;  and 
the  attempt  to  enable  the  factory  inspectors  to  do  the  work  of  truant 
officers  can  never  be  successful 

In  manufacturing  centers  there  is  the  same  lack  of  school  accom- 
modations to  which  attention  has  been  called  in  previous  reports,  as 
one  great  reason  for  the  illiteracy  prevailing  among  working  children 
in  this  State. 

In  Chicago,  the  City  Council  has  taken  a  distinctly  retrograde 
step  in  reducing  the  school  appropriations  by  $2,000,000  for  1896-97, 
thus  checking  the  building  of  school  houses,  and  depriving  thousands 
of  working  class  children  of  the  opportunity  for  school  life  which 
primary  schools  are  supposed  to  extend  to  all  alike.  That  the  work- 
ing children  are  thus  vitally  affected,  the  report  of  the  Chicago  Board 
of  Education  for  1896  shows. 

Mr.  D.  R.  Cameron,  president  of  the  Board,  says:  "The  number 
of  sittings  owned  by  the  Board  has  increased  during  the  past  year 
14,519,  an  equivalent  of  16,  2O-room  school  buildings.  The  total 
enrolment  of  pupils  in  our  schools  during  the  year  1894-5  was 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION    427 

201,380,  and  for  the  year  1895-6  reached  the  aggregate  of  215,784 
pupils,  an  increase  of  14,404;  whereby,  it  will  be  noted,  the  number 
of  new  sittings  for  this  last  year  exceeded  the  additional  enrolment 
of  pupils  by  115,  not  a  great  gain,  yet  a  gain.  This  is  a  most  satis- 
factory showing,  for,  so  far  as  my  knowledge  extends,  it  is  the  first 
time  in  years  that  the  work  of  this  important  committee  (Buildings 
and  Grounds)  has  outrun  the  increase  of  school  membership.  This 
gratifying  record  might  have  become  a  reasonable  hope  for  the  future 
had  not  the  Common  Council  so  seriously  crippled  the  work  of  the  Board 
by  a  reduction  of  $2,000,000  from  its  resources  for  the  year  1896-7. 

"The  serious  crippling  of  this  department  must  re-act  in  adverse 
ways  and  meet  its  compensation  in  increased  expenditure  for  police, 
judicial  and  penal  institutions.  The  whole  policy  of  a  government 
is  summed  up  in  the  requirement,  educate  or  punish.  To  cheapen 
one  is  to  multiply  the  cost  of  the  other  by  a  large  ratio.  The  schools 
are  our  social  and  political  safeguards,  especially  so  when,  in  our 
cosmopolitan  population,  we  are  confronted  not  so  much  with  the 
question  of  educating  a  homogeneous  people,  but  with  the  far  more 
difficult  problem  of  providing  educational  facilities  for  children  of 
every  nationality  under  the  sun." 

The  committee  on  Buildings  and  Grounds  reports:  "We  have 
reduced  the  number  of  children  in  half-day  divisions  from  20,000  in 

September,  1895  to  15,708  in  June,  1896 But  it  must  be  borne 

in  mind  that  we  have,  besides  those  children  in  half -day  divisions 
about  11,700  others  in  rented  rooms,  just  as  many  as  we  had  at  the 
beginning  of  the  school  year.  Were  it  not  for  the  curtailment  of  our 
funds  by  the  City  Council,  next  year  we  should  have  made  rapid 
strides  towards  the  completion  of  enough  schools  to  accommodate 
every  child  seeking  an  education. 

"No  additional  buildings  can  be  started,  and  in  accepting  the 
situation  we  have  simply  to  rest  in  the  consciousness  that  no  matter 
what  our  needs  are,  we  cannot  spend  what  we  have  not  got." 

How  brief  is  the  school  life  of  the  majority  of  the  children,  Mr. 
A.  G.  Lane,  Superintendent  of  Schools,  shows  in  his  report,  as  follows: 
"Sixty-seven  and  three-tenths  per  cent,  of  the  average  daily  mem- 
bership was  in  the  primary  grades;  twenty-eight  and  a  half  per  cent, 
was  in  the  grammar  grades,  and  four  and  23/100  per  cent,  was  in  the 


428     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

high  school  grades.  I  repeat  the  statement  and  table  printed  last 
year,  showing  that  nearly  seventy  per  cent,  of  the  children  who  enter 
school  each  year  remain  in  school  until  they  become  members  of  the 
fifth  grade,  which  is  the  first  grammar  grade,  and  embraces  the  fifth 
year's  work." 

Children  usually  enter  school  at  six  years  of  age  and  finish 
a  grade  a  year.  Mr.  Lane's  figures,  therefore,  indicate  that  rather 
more  than  thirty  per  cent,  of  the  children  leave  school  under  the  age 
of  eleven  years,  forty  per  cent,  at  about  that  age,  while  rather  less 
than  thirty  per  cent,  remain  longer  in  school.  Conceding  that  a  por- 
tion fail  to  pass  a  grade  a  year,  and  remain  in  the  primary  grades  six 
or  seven  years,  the  inference  would  still  be  unavoidable  that  two- 
thirds  of  the  children  leave  the  public  schools  far  below  the  legal  age 
of  work.  While  this  state  of  things  continues,  the  factory  inspectors 
cannot  obtain  complete  compliance  with  the  law  prohibiting  employ- 
ment of  children  under  14  years  of  age. 

It  is  sometimes  urged  in  mitigation  of  the  early  employment  of 
children  that  the  ambitious  ones  who  really  care  for  self -improvement, 
can  continue  their  studies  hi  the  night  schools.  On  this  point  Mr. 
Lane  says:  "There  were  3,263  persons  under  15  years  of  age  in 
attendance  (at  the  night  schools).  Many  of  the  younger  ones,  pupils 
in  the  elementary  grades,  are  irregular  and  lack  interest,  which  is 
caused  largely  by  physical  exhaustion." 

Children  who  have  worked  all  day  with  the  intensity  demanded 
by  the  conditions  of  work  in  our  time  are  in  no  state  to  profit  by  the 
best  possible  teaching  in  the  evening. 

The  introduction  of  manual  training  into  the  public  schools  (it 
has  been  introduced  into  66  schools  in  Chicago  alone  during  1896) 
aggravates  the  disadvantage  of  the  boy  who  drops  out  of  the  fifth 
grade,  or  a  lower  one,  to  spend  his  days  hi  some  wretched  brainless 
manipulation,  which  teaches  him  no  trade,  and  leaves  him  less  valu- 
able, because  less  eager  and  wide-awake,  than  the  boy  who  has  never 
worked  for  wages. 

In  the  three  and  a  half  years  since  the  creation  of  this  department 
a  large  number  of  affidavits  have  been  filled  out  hi  the  office  for 
children  just  14  years  old,  who  were  going  to  work  for  the  first  tune. 
The  eager  ambition  of  these  children  (mixed,  perhaps,  with  a  certain 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION    429 

pleasure  in  escaping  from  school)  is  to  earn  money  and  "make  a 
living."  But  precocity  is  dangerous  in.  this,  as  in  everything  else, 
and  later  acquaintance  with  many  of  these  children  shows  a  serious 
deterioration  in  moral  fibre. 

A  lad  going  to  work  thus  early,  hoping  to  help  his  widowed 
mother,  soon  finds  his  work  precarious,  and  his  wages,  even  when  he 
is  steadily  employed,  insufficient  to  maintain  the  family,  who  remain 
dependent  on  charity.  If  the  boy,  starting  with  this  noble  impulse, 
escape  all  the  accidents  to  which  the  rashness  of  childhood  subjects 
him  even  beyond  the  exposure  common  to  all  employes;  and  if  he 
retain  his  health,  in  spite  of  the  injurious  surroundings  of  his  work, 
he  is  still  likely  to  deteriorate  into  a  weary  drudge,  lacking  all  the 
grit  and  energy  which  every  man  needs  who  is  to  hold  his  own  in  the 
industrial  life  of  this  generation. 

No  acquisition  of  a  skilled  trade  compensates  the  child  of  today 
for  loss  of  the  education  afforded  by  the  primary  schools.  There 
might  have  been  some  such  compensation  in  the  early  days  when 
boys  learned  trades  which  assured  them  a  livelihood.  Far  from 
having  any  educational  value,  the  work  which  young  children  now 
perform,  teaches  them  chiefly  instability  and  disregard  of  the  future. 
Having  learned  how  little  they  can  earn  by  their  utmost  exertion, 
and  balancing  this  exertion  against  the  pay,  they  too  often  settle 
down  into  mere  "corner  loafers,"  valueless  to  the  community,  to  the 
family,  and  to  themselves.  This  undermining  effect  upon  character, 
of  premature  entry  upon  the  work  of  life,  though  less  conspicuous 
than  some  other  dangers  of  child  labor,  is  no  less  serious. 

The  New  York  compulsory  school  law  extends  to  the  age  of  16 
years,  and  the  New  York  factory  law  authorizes  inspectors  to  order 
the  discharge  of  children  under  16  years  of  age  who  cannot  read  and 
write  simple  English.  Under  this  provision  the  inspectors  ordered 
the  discharge  of  238  illiterate  children  in  one  year,  and  report  a  marked 
decrease  in  illiteracy  since  the  provision  went  into  effect.  Parents 
have  learned  that  an  immediate  commercial  value  attaches  to  some 
slight  mastery  of  the  English  tongue  by  their  children.  This  prohi- 
bition of  employment  of  children  who  cannot  read  and  write  in 
English  would  be  especially  beneficial  in  Illinois,  where  a  large  body 
of  the  foreign-born  population  is  not  yet  assimilated. 


430     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

We  recommend  that  the  prosecution  of  parents  derelict  under 
the  compulsory  education  law  be  made  mandatory  upon  local  school 
boards,  as  the  prosecution  of  manufacturers  who  employ  children 
under  14  years  of  age  is  mandatory  upon  the  Factory  Inspector. 

For  children  over  14  years  of  age,  we  recommend  the  enactment 
of  the  requirement  that  they  must  be  able  to  read  and  write  simple 
English  before  going  to  work 

Some  children  are  sent  to  work  because  the  father  drinks,  and 
does  not  support  the  family.  Others  leave  school  because  the  tradi- 
tion is  wide-spread  and  powerful  that  a  child  who  has  reached  the 
age  of  confirmation  is  ready  to  enter  upon  the  work  of  life.  This 
tradition  is  deeply  rooted  among  foreign  colonies,  where  recent  immi- 
grants are  eager  to  turn  the  earning  capacity  of  the  children  to  account 
at  the  earliest  moment.  "I  have  fed  her  14  years,  and  now  she  can 
help  me  pay  off  my  mortgages,"  was  the  reply  of  a  stalwart,  pros- 
perous looking  immigrant  when  asked  why  he  wanted  an  affidavit 
for  his  crooked-backed,  puny  child,  on  her  i4th  birthday. 

A  secondary  cause  of  employment  of  children  is  the  belief  that 
their  labor  is  cheap.  This  cheapness  is  largely  illusory.  In  the 
glass  industry,  when  the  youngest  boys  were  removed  by  enforcement 
of  the  law,  a  slight  technical  improvement  immediately  took  their 
place;  and  with  its  help  their  work  is  now  done  by  older  boys,  without 
added  cost  to  manufacturers.  In  the  book-binding  trade,  the  folding 
machine  is  replacing  the  smaller  girls  in  all  the  best  equipped  binderies. 
Even  when  no  new  machinery  follows  removal  of  the  younger  children, 
a  boy  or  girl  just  over  1 6  costs  very  little  more  in  wages  than  one  under  1 5 . 

If  no  child  under  16  years  of  age  were  employed  after  tomorrow, 
it  is  doubtful  whether  the  actual  increase  in  cost  to  employers  gen- 
erally would  be  perceptible. 

Premature  work  costs  the  children  the  years  of  education  and 
normal  growth  which  prepare  for  healthy  and  useful  manhood  and 
womanhood.  It  engenders  incompetent  employes,  incapable  of 
entire  self-support.  It  disables  a  large  proportion  of  workers,  by 
undermining  their  health  in  childhood.  It  often  ends  in  mutilation 
by  exposing  ignorant  and  reckless  boys  and  girls  to  dangerous  ma- 
chinery and  explosives.  To  the  children  and  to  the  community, 
then,  this  work  is  not  cheap;  it  is  intolerably  expensive. 


APPENDIX  IV 

EARLY  LAWS  OF  THE  STATE  OF  ILLINOIS  RELATING  TO  THE 

ESTABLISHMENT  OF  FREE  SCHOOLS,  COMPULSORY 

EDUCATION,  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

Extracts  from:  (i)  An  Act  Providing  for  the  Establishment  of  Free  Schools, 
1825;  (2)  An  Act  to  Provide  for  the  Application  of  the  Interest  of  the 
Fund  Arising  from  the  Sale  of  the  School  Lands  Belonging  to  the 
Several  Townships  in  This  State,  1833;  (3)  An  Act  Relating  to 
Schools  in  Township  Thirty -nine  North,  Range  Fourteen  East,  1835; 

(4)  An  Act  to  Establish  and  Maintain  a  System  of  Free  Schools,  1855; 

(5)  An  Act  to  Secure  to  All  Children  the  Benefits  of  an  Elementary 
Education,  1883. 

(i)   Extracts  from  "An  Act  Providing  for  the  Establishment  of 
Free  Schools"  (in  force  January  15,  1825) 

To  enjoy  our  rights  and  liberties,  we  must  understand  them; 
their  security  and  protection  ought  to  be  the  first  object  of  a  free 
people;  and  it  is  a  well  established  fact  that  no  nation  has  ever 
continued  long  in  the  enjoyment  of  civil  and  political  freedom,  which 
was  not  both  virtuous  and  enlightened;  and  believing  that  the 
advancement  of  literature  always  has  been,  and  ever  will  be  the  means 
of  developing  more  fully  the  rights  of  man,  that  the  mind  of  every 
citizen  in  a  republic  is  the  common  property  of  society,  and  consti- 
tutes the  basis  of  its  strength  and  happiness;  it  is  therefore  considered 
the  peculiar  duty  of  a  free  government,  like  ours,  to  encourage  and 
extend  the  improvement  and  cultivation  of  the  intellectual  energies 
of  the  whole :  Therefore, 

i.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  people  of  the  state  of  Illinois,  represented 
in  the  General  Assembly,  That  there  shall  be  established  a  common 
school  or  schools  in  each  of  the  counties  of  this  state,  which  shall  be 
open  and  free  to  every  class  of  white  citizens,  between  the  ages  of 
five  and  twenty-one  years:  Provided,  That  persons  over  the  age  of 


432     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

twenty-one  years,  may  be  admitted  into  such  schools,  on  such  terms 
as  the  trustees  of  the  school  district  may  prescribe. 

2.  Be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  county  commissioners'  courts, 
shall,  from  time  to  time,  form  school  districts  in  their  respective 
counties,  whenever  a  petition  may  be  presented  for  that  purpose 
by  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters,  resident  within  such  con- 
templated district 

4.  Be  it  further  enacted,  That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  trustees 
to  superintend  the  schools  within  their  respective  districts;  .... 
to  make  an  annual  report  to  the  county  commissioners'  court  of  the 
proper  county,  of  the  number  of  children  living  within  the  bounds  of 
such  district,  between  the  ages  of  five  and  twenty-one  years,  and 
what  number  of  them  are  actually  sent  to  school,  with  a  certificate 
of  the  time  a  school  is  actually  kept  up  in  the  district,  with  the 
probable  expense  of  the  same 

22.  Be  it  further  enacted,  That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  any  district,  at  their  regular  or  called  meetings,  to  make  such 
regulations  for  building  or  repairing  school  houses  as  they  may  think 
necessary,  and  for  furnishing  the  school  house  with  fire-wood  and 
furniture;  they  shall  have  power  to  class  themselves,  and  agree  upon 
the  number  of  days  each  person  or  class  shall  work  in  making  such 
improvements,  and  all  other  regulations  that  they  may  think  neces- 
sary to  accomplish  such  building  or  improvement:  Provided,  how- 
ever, That  no  person  shall  be  required  to  do  any  work,  or  pay  for 
such  improvements  or  wood,  unless  they  have  the  care  of  a  child 
between  the  age  of  five  and  twenty-one  years,  or  unless  he  shall  attend 
the  school  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  instruction;  and  for  any 
neglect  or  refusal  to  do  such  work,  by  any  one  of  the  inhabitants, 
according  to  this  act,  there  shall  be  a  fine  for  each  day  they  shall  so 
neglect  or  refuse  to  work  of  seventy-five  cents. 

24.  Be  it  further  enacted,  That  whenever  the  tax  is  levied,  accord- 
ing to  the  twelfth  section  of  this  act,  in  good  merchantable  produce, 
it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  trustees  to  make  out  a  list,  with  a  warrant, 
stating  amounts  to  be  collected  in  produce;  and  they  shall  have  power 
to  transfer  the  list  and  warrant  to  any  teacher  or  teachers  that  they 
may  have  employed,  who  shall  have  full  power  to  collect  the  same; 
and  if  any  person  shall  refuse  or  neglect  to  pay  their  respective 


EARLY  LAWS  OF  THE  STATE  OF  ILLINOIS        433 

amounts,  in  produce,  for  two  weeks  after  demanded,  it  shall  be  lawful 
to  collect  the  same  in  cash:  Provided,  That  whenever  there  is  any 
disagreement  about  the  price  of  any  produce  offered  in  payment,  it 
shall  be  the  duty  of  each  to  select  one  disinterested  house-keeper, 
to  value  the  same,  and  if  they  cannot  agree  it  shall  be  their  duty  to 
choose  a  third,  and  all  such  valuation  shall  be  binding. 
Approved,  January  15,  1825. 

(2)  Extracts  from  "An  Act  to  Provide  for  the  Application  of  the 
Interest  of  the  Fund  Arising  from  the  Sale  of  the  School 
Lands  Belonging  to  the  Several  Townships  in  This  State" 
(in  force  May  i,  1833) 

3.  On  the  first  Saturday  in  May  next,  or  if  the  school  shall  com- 
mence after  that  time,  then  at  some  time  within  one  month  after  the 
commencement  of  the  school,  a  meeting  of  the  employers  of  the 
teachers  shall  be  held,  of  which  meeting  the  teachers  shall  give  three 
days  previous  notice,  to  each  of  his  employers,  who  are  not  absent 
from  the  neighborhood,  at  which  meeting  such  employers  shall  pro- 
ceed to  appoint  three  persons  as  trustees  of  said  schools;  said  trustees 
shall  be  authorized,  and  it  shall  be  their  duty  to  visit  the  school  from 
time  to  time,  and  to  require  the  admission  into  the  school,  and  the 
gratuitous  tuition  of  such  children  residing  in  the  vicinity  of  the  school 
as  shall  be  presented  to  said  trustees  for  that  purpose,  if  such  trustees 
shall  believe  that  the  parents  or  guardians  of  such  children  are  unable 
to  pay  for  their  tuition.    It  shall  also  be  the  duty  of  said  trustees  to 
receive  and  apply  to  the  use  of  the  school,  any  donations  of  money, 
books,  maps,  globes,  stationery,  or  other  articles  necessary  or  useful 
for  schools 

4.  The  teacher  shall  make  a  schedule  of  the  names  of  all  scholars 
attending  his  school,  who  reside  within  the  township  to  which  the 
school  fund  belongs,  from  the  interest  of  which  he  wishes  to  obtain 
a  part  of  his  compensation ;  and  on  every  day  on  which  a  school  shall 
be  kept  by  him,  he  shall  set  down  under  the  proper  date,  and  opposite 
the  name  of  each  scholar,  the  attendance  or  absence  of  such  scholar. 
Immediately  after  the  close  of  the  month  of  October,  or  sooner,  if  his 
school  shall  have  come  to  a  close,  said  teacher  shall  add  together  the 


434     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

number  of  days  which  each  scholar  residing  in  the  proper  township 
shall  have  attended  his  school,  and  set  down  the  total  number  of  days 
opposite  the  name  of  such  scholar;  he  shall  then  add  together  their 
several  amounts,  and  set  down  the  total  number  at  the  bottom  of  the 
schedule;  and  this  total  number,  after  the  schedule  shall  have  been 
examined,  and  if  necessary  corrected  by  the  school  commissioner, 
shall  be  the  criterion  by  which  he  shall  be  governed  in  making  the 
apportionment  aforesaid;  but  no  such  schedule  shall  be  taken  into 
consideration  unless  it  shall  be  accompanied  by  a  certificate  from 
a  majority  of  the  trustees  of  the  school,  or  from  five  of  the  employers 
of  said  teacher,  setting  forth  that  they  verily  believe  said  schedule 
to  be  correct,  and  that  said  teacher  has,  to  the  best  of  their  knowledge 
and  belief,  given  gratuitous  instruction  in  said  school,  to  all  such 
orphans  and  children  of  indigent  parents  residing  in  the  vicinity,  as 
have  been  presented  for  that  purpose  by  the  trustees  of  said  school. 
If  any  school  shall  contain  scholars  residing  in  two  or  more  different 
townships,  each  possessing  a  productive  school  fund  derived  from 
their  school  lands,  the  teacher  of  the  school  in  order  to  become  entitled 
to  a  share  of  the  interest  of  each  of  said  township  school  funds,  shall 
make  separate  schedules  of  the  names  of  his  scholars  residing  in  each 
of  said  townships,  and  make  return  thereof  to  the  school  commissioner 
of  the  county  in  which  such  township,  or  the  larger  part  thereof,  shall 
be  situated.  In  making  the  apportionment  authorized  by  the  fore- 
going part  of  this  act,  no  services  of  any  teacher  shall  be  taken  into 
consideration,  except  such  as  shall  have  been  rendered  between  the 
last  day  of  April  and  the  first  day  of  November  of  the  present  year. 
5.  On  the  second  Monday  of  November,  in  the  year  one  thousand 
eight-hundred  and  thirty-four,  or  within  one  week  thereafter,  and 
at  the  same  time  in  each  succeeding  year,  each  school  commissioner 
shall  proceed  to  apportion  the  interest  derived  from  each  township 
school  fund  in  his  county,  among  the  several  teachers  entitled  to 
the  same.  In  all  cases  where  such  interest  is  not  required  to  pay  the 
expenses  incident  to  the  survey  and  sale  of  the  school  lands,  and  the 
management  of  the  fund,  such  apportionment  of  interest  shall  be 
made  among  the  several  teachers  entitled  to  it,  according  to  the  num- 
ber of  their  scholars  residing  in  the  township  possessed  of  such  school 
fund,  and  the  number  of  days  each  of  said  scholars  shall  have  been 


EARLY  LAWS  OF  THE  STATE  OF  ILLINOIS        435 

instructed  by  such  teacher,  within  the  twelve  months  immediately 
preceding  the  month  in  which  such  apportionment  is  hereby  required 
to  be  made,  to  be  ascertained  in  the  mode  pointed  out  in  the  fourth 
section  of  this  act 

(3)  Extracts  from  "An  Act  Relating   to  Schools  in  Township 

Thirty-nine  North,  Range  Fourteen  East"  (in  the  City  of 

Chicago)  (in  force  February  6,  1835} 

i.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  people  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  repre- 
sented in  the  General  Assembly,  That  the  legal  voters  in  township 
thirty-nine  north,  range  fourteen  east,  hi  Cook  County,  shall  assemble 
at  the  usual  place  of  holding  elections  in  the  said  township,  on  the 
first  Monday  in  June  next,  and  annually  thereafter,  and  elect  either 
five  or  seven  persons  to  be  school  inspectors,  who  shall  continue  in 
office  one  year  and  until  others  are  elected 

3.  The  said  school  inspectors,  or  some  of  them,   shall  visit 
all  of  the  public  schools  within  the  township,  at  least  once  a  month; 
inquire  into  the  progress  of  the  scholars  and  the  government  of  the 
schools;    examine  all  persons  offering  themselves  as  candidates  for 
teaching,   and  when  found  well  qualified,  give  them  certificates 
thereof  gratuitously,  and  attend  at  the  quarterly  examinations  of 
the  scholars.    They  may  advise  and  direct  as  to  the  books  to  be 
used,  and  the  course  of  study  to  be  pursued  in  the  schools;    may 
remove  teachers  for  any  just  cause;  make  by-laws  for  the  regulations 
of  the  schools:  Provided,  That  a  majority  of  the  voters,  at  any  legal 
meeting  of  the  township  called  for  the  purpose,  may  repeal  such  by- 
laws; may  divide  the  schools  into  male  and  female  departments,  if 
they  think  it  expedient ;  and  if  a  majority  of  the  legal  voters  of  the 
township  shall  require  it,  they  may  establish  one  or  more  high  schools, 
under  such  regulations  as  a  majority  of  such  legal  voters  may  pre- 
scribe; and  they  may  do  such  other  things  in  relation  to  schools, 
not  inconsistent  with  this  act,  as  a  majority  of  the  legal  voters  of 
the  township  may  direct. 

4.  The  legal  voters  in  each  school  district,  shall  annually  elect 
three  persons  to  be  trustees  of  common  schools,  whose  duty  it  shall 
be  to  employ  qualified  and  suitable  teachers;  to  see  that  the  schools 
are  free,  and  that  all  the  white  children  in  the  district  have  an  oppor- 


436     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

tunity  of  attending  them,  under  such  regulations  as  the  inspectors 
may  make;  to  take  charge  of  the  school  houses,  and  all  of  the  school 
property  belonging  to  the  district,  and  to  manage  the  whole  financial 
concerns  thereof.  The  said  trustees  shall  annually  levy  and  collect 
a  tax  sufficient  to  defray  the  necessary  expense  of  fuel,  rent  of  school 
room,  and  furniture  for  the  same;  and  they  shall  levy  and  collect  such 
additional  taxes  as  a  majority  of  the  legal  voters  of  the  district,  at  a 
meeting  called  for  that  purpose,  shall  direct:  Provided,  That  such 
additional  taxes  shall  never  exceed  one-half  of  one  per  cent,  per 
annum  upon  all  the  taxable  property  in  the  district;  all  of  which 
taxes  the  said  trustees  shall  have  full  power  to  assess  and  collect. 

6.  The  trustees  of  each  district  shall,  at  the  end  of  every  quarter, 
make  report  to  the  school  inspectors  in  writing,  which  report  shall 
set  forth  the  number  of  schools  within  the  district;  the  time  that 
each  has  been  taught  during  the  previous  quarter,  and  whether  by 
male  or  female  teachers;  the  number  of  scholars,  and  the  time  of  their 
attendance  during  the  quarter,  to  be  ascertained  by  the  teachers' 
keeping  an  exact  list  or  roll  of  the  scholars'  names;  the  number  present 
every  school-time  or  half  day,  which  roll  or  list  shall  be  sworn  to  or 
affirmed  by  the  teacher,  and  shall  accompany  the  trustees'  report. 

8.  The  school  inspectors  shall  quarterly  apportion  the  said  school 
moneys  among  the  several  districts  in  the  said  township  according 
to  the  number  of  scholars  in  school  therein,  between  the  ages  of  five 
and  twenty-one  years;    and  also,  according  to  the  time  that  each 
scholar  has  actually  attended  such  school  during  the  previous  quarter, 
to  be  ascertained  by  the  report  of  the  said  trustees  and  teachers. 

9.  Whenever  the  said  apportionment  shall  have  been  made,  the 
school  inspectors  shall  make  out  a  schedule  thereof,  setting  forth  the 
amount  due  to  each  district,  the  person  or  persons  entitled  to  receive 
the  same,  and  shall  deliver  the  said  schedule,  together  with  the 
reports  of  the  trustees,  and  the  lists  or  the  rolls  of  the  teachers,  to  the 
commissioner  of  school  lands,  and  thereupon  the  said  commissioner 
shall  pay  over  such  parts  of  the  interest  of  the  school  moneys  belong- 
ing to  the  said  township,  as  the  said  inspectors,  in  said  schedule,  may 
direct.    It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  commissioner  of  school  lands,  in 
Cook  County,  to  preserve  all  of  the  schedules,  reports  and  teachers' 


EARLY  LAWS  OF  THE  STATE  OF  ILLINOIS        437 

rolls,  that  may  be  delivered  to  him  as  aforesaid,  and  to  make  a  record 
thereof  in  a  book  to  be  kept  by  him  for  that  purpose,  and  he  shall 
annually  make  and  transmit  to  the  Auditor  of  the  State,  a  report, 
which  shall  set  forth  the  various  items  contained  in  the  trustees' 
reports  and  teachers'  rolls,  and  such  other  information  concerning  the 
schools  in  the  said  township,  as  he  may  have  in  his  possession,  together 
with  a  particular  account  of  all  of  the  school  moneys  by  him  paid  out, 
and  such  other  matters  as  he  may  see  fit  to  add. 

10.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  inspectors,  semi-annually,  to 
make  a  report,  setting  forth  the  state  and  condition  of  the  schools 
in  the  said  township,  and  cause  the  same  to  be  published  in  one  or 
more  of  the  newspapers  printed  in  the  township:  Provided,  nothing 
in  this  act  shall  be  so  construed  as  to  authorize  the  school  commis- 
sioner of  Cook  County  to  pay  to  said  trustees  any  part  of  the  principal 
belonging  to  said  township. 

This  act  to  be  in  force  from  and  after  its  passage. 
Approved,  February  6,  1835. 

(4)  Extracts  from  " An  Act  to  Establish  and  Maintain  a  System 
of  Free  Schools  (in  force  February  15,  1855} 

45.  A  majority  of  said  directors  shall  constitute  a  quorum  to  do 

business They  shall  establish  a  sufficient  number  of  common 

schools  for  the  education  of  every  individual  person  over  the  age  of 
five  and  under  twenty-one  years,  in  their  respective  districts;  and 
shall  make  the  necessary  provision  for  continuing  such  schools  in 
operation  for  at  least  six  months  in  each  year,  and  longer  if 
practicable 

67.  The  common  school  fund  of  this  state  shall  consist  of  such 
sum  as  will  be  produced  by  the  annual  levy  and  assessment  of  two 
mills  upon  each  dollar's  valuation  of  all  the  taxable  property  in  the 
state,  and  there  is  hereby  levied  and  assessed  annually,  in  addition 
to  the  revenue  for  state  purposes,  the  said  two  mills  upon  each 
dollar's  valuation  of  all  the  taxable  property  in  the  state,  to  be  col- 
lected and  paid  into  the  state  treasury  as  other  revenue  is  collected 
and  paid;  and  the  amount  due  from  the  state,  according  to  a  state- 
ment and  settlement  of  the  account  between  the  state  and  that  fund, 
under  the  provisions  of  an  act  entitled  an  "Act  to  provide  for  the 
distribution  and  application  of  the  interest  on  the  school,  college  and 


438     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

seminary  fund,"  approved  on  the  seventh  of  February  1835,  and  of 
all  funds  which  have  been  or  may  be  received  by  the  state  from  the 
United  States,  for  the  use  and  support  of  common  schools,  and  also 
of  the  money  added  to  the  common  school  fund  which  was  received 
from  the  United  States  under  an  act  of  congress  providing  for  a  dis- 
tribution of  the  surplus  revenue  of  the  United  States 

70.  At  each  meeting  in  October,  or  at  any  subsequent  meeting 
thereafter,  before  the  first  of  May,  annually,  each  township  board 
of  trustees  in  this  state  shall  determine,  by  estimate,  as  nearly  as 
practicable,  the  entire  amount  of  money  necessary  to  be  expended 
in  the  township  to  keep  in  good  condition  and  operation  a  sufficient 
number  of  free  schools  for  the  accommodation  of  all  the  children  in 
said  township  during  the  ensuing  year,  over  and  above  the  available 
means  arising  from  the  township  fund,  or  from  other  sources,  and 
applicable  to  general  school  purposes,  and  also  such  additional 
amount  as  the  board  may  think  necessary  for  the  exclusive  purpose 
of  supplying  any  deficiency  in  the  fund  for  the  payment  of  teachers, 
and  for  the  purpose  of  extending  the  terms  of  schools  after  the  state 
or  common  school  fund  shall  have  been  exhausted;  and  shall  deter- 
mine, as  nearly  as  practicable,  what  rate  per  cent,  on  the  one  hundred 
dollars'  valuation  of  all  the  taxable  property  in  the  township,  each 
of  said  amounts  separately,  will  require  to  be  levied. 

(5)  Extracts  from  "An  Act  to  Secure  to  All  Children  the  Benefit 

of  an  Elementary  Education"  (in  force  July  i,  1883) 

[The  first  compulsory  education  law  in  Illinois.] 

i.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  People  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  represented  in 
the  General  Assembly:  That  every  person  having  the  control  and 
charge  of  any  child  or  children,  between  the  ages  of  eight  and  four- 
teen years,  shall  send  such  child  or  children  to  a  public  or  private 
school  for  a  period  of  not  less  than  twelve  weeks  in  each  school  year, 
unless  such  child  or  children  are  excused  from  attending  school  by 
the  board  of  education,  or  school  directors  of  the  city,  town,  or  school 
district  in  which  such  child  or  children  reside.  Such  excuse  may  be 
given  by  said  board  of  education  or  school  directors  for  any  good 
cause  shown  why  said  child  or  children  shall  not  be  required  to  attend 
school  in  conformity  with  this  act. 


EARLY  LAWS  OF  THE  STATE  OF  ILLINOIS        439 

2.  It  shall  be  a  good  defense  to  any  suit  brought  under  this  act, 
if  the  person  under  whose  control  such  child  or  children  are,  can  show 
that  the  mental  or  bodily  condition  of  such  child  or  children  is  such 
as  to  prevent  its  attendance  at  school  or  application  to  study  for 
the  period  required  by  this  act,  or,  that  such  child  or  children  have 
been  taught  in  a  private  school,  or  at  home  for  the  time  specified  in 
this  act,  in  such  branches  as  are  ordinarily  taught  in  primary  or  other 
schools,  or  have  acquired  the  branches  of  learning  ordinarily  taught 
in  public  schools,  or  that  no  public  school  has  been  taught  within  two 
miles,  by  the  nearest  traveled  road,  of  the  residence  of  such  child  or 
children,  within  the  school  district  in  which  said  child  or  children 
reside,  for  twelve  weeks  during  the  year. 

3.  If  any  person  having  the  control  and  charge  of  any  child  or 
children  shall  fail  or  neglect  to  comply  with  the  provisions  of  this 
act,  said  person  shall  pay  a  fine  of  not  less  than  five  nor  more  than 
twenty  dollars.     Suit  for  the  recovery  of  the  fine  and  costs  shall  be 
brought  by  any  director,  or  member  of  any  board  of  education,  of  the 
district  in  which  such  person  resided  at  the  time  of  the  committal  of 
the  offense,  before  any  justice  of  the  peace  of  said  township.    Juris- 
diction is  hereby  conferred  on  all  justices  of  the  peace  in  this  State 
for  enforcing  this  act.     Such  fine  shall  be  paid,  when  collected,  to  the 
school  treasurer  of  said  township,  to  be  accounted  for  by  him  as 
other  school  money  raised  for  school  purposes. 

4.  It  is  hereby  made  the  duty  of  school  directors  and  members  of 
the  boards  of  education  to  prosecute  offenses  occurring  under  this 
act.    The  neglect  so  to  prosecute  by  any  school  director,  or  member 
of  any  board  of  education,  within  twenty  days  after  written  notice 
has  been  served  on  such  director,  or  member  of  such  board  of  edu- 
cation, by  any  tax  payer  residing  in  such  district,  that  any  person 
has  violated  this  act,  shall  subject  him  or  them  to  a  fine  of  ten  dollars, 
to  be  sued  for  by  any  tax  payer  residing  in  the  school  district  where 
the  violation  of  this  act  occurred,  before  any  justice  of  the  peace  in 
the  township  where  the  said  school  district  may  be  located;  and  when 
such  fine  is  collected  it  shall  be  reported  by  said  treasurer,  and 
accounted  for  as  other  money  raised  for  school  purposes,  and  become 
a  part  of  the  school  fund  of  said  township. 

Approved,  June  23,  1883. 


APPENDIX  V 

TABLE  SHOWING  IN  PARALLEL  COLUMNS  THE  DEVELOPMENT 

OF  THE  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

LAWS  OF  ILLINOIS,  1870-1916 

COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  CHILD  LABOE 

1872  An  Act  providing  for  the 
health  and  safety  of  per- 
sons employed  in  coal 
mines. 

Age  and  occupation. — Em- 
ployment of  child  under 
14  in  mines  forbidden. 

Enforcement. — County     sur- 
veyor  ex-ojficio   mine   in- 
spector. 
1877    An  Act  to  amend  act  of  1872. 

Age  and  occupation. — Em- 
ployment of  child  under  12 
in  mine  forbidden. 

Enforcement. — County  board 
to  appoint  competent  in- 
spectors. 

1877  An  Act  to  prevent  and  punish 
wrongs  to  children. 

Age  and  occupation. — Em- 
ployment of  child  under 
14  in  occupation  dangerous 
to  morality,  health,  or  life 
forbidden.  Child  so  en- 
gaged may  be  taken  into 
custody  of  court. 

Enforcement. — No  provision. 

44° 


EDUCATION  AND  CHILD  LABOR  LAWS 


441 


COMPULSORY  EDUCATION 


1883  An  Act  to  secure  to  children 
the  benefit  of  an  ele- 
mentary education. 

Age  limits. — 8  to  14. 

Period  of  attendance. — 12 
weeks  annually. 

Exemptions. — M  e  n  t  a  1  or 
physical  inability;  com- 
pletion of  required  course; 
instruction  at  home  or  in 
private  school;  distance  of 
two  miles  from  public 
school. 

Enforcement. — School  direc- 
tors and  boards  of  educa- 
tion to  prosecute  offenders. 
Penalty,  a  fine  of  $5  to  $20. 


1879 


1883 


1887 


CHILD  LABOR 

An  Act  providing  for  the 
health  and  safety  of  per- 
sons employed  in  coal 
mines. 

Age  and  occupation. — Em- 
ployment of  child  under  12 
or  illiterate  boy  under  14 
forbidden.  Certain  occu- 
pations forbidden  under  18. 

Enforcement. — County  board 
to  appoint  inspectors. 

An  Act  to  amend  act  of  1879. 

Age  and  occupation. — Em- 
ployment of  child  under  14 
in  mine  forbidden. 

Enforcememt. — Governor  to 
appoint  competent  in- 
spectors. 


An  Act  to  amend  act  of  1879 
and  amendatory  act  of 
1883. 

Age  and  occupation. — Em- 
ployment of  child  under  14 
in  mine  forbidden. 

Parent  to  make  age  affidavit. 

Enforcement. — State  inspect- 


An  Act  concerning  the  edu- 
cation of  children. 


442     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


COMPULSORY  EDUCATION 

Age  limits. — 7  to  14. 

Period  of  attendance. — 16 
weeks  annually,  at  least  10 
to  be  consecutive,  at  school 
giving  prescribed  instruc- 
tion in  English. 

Exemption. — Mental  or  phys- 
ical inability;  completion 
of  course  of  study;  in- 
struction at  home  or  in 
approved  private  school. 

Enforcement. — Board  of  Edu- 
cation to  appoint  truant 
officers  to  apprehend  chil- 
dren and  to  prosecute  par- 
ents. Penalty  prescribed 
for  not  securing  attendance 
of  child  and  for  misstate- 
ment  concerning  age  of 
child. 


CHILD  LABOR 


1893  An  Act  concerning  the  edu- 
cation of  children. 

Age  limits. — 7  to  14. 

Period  of  attendance. — 16 
weeks  annually,  at  least  1 2 
to  be  consecutive,  at  public 
or  private  day  school. 


1891     AnActto  prevent  child  labor. 

Age  and  occupation. — Em- 
ployment of  child  under  13 
in  any  store,  shop,  factory, 
or  manufacturing  estab- 
lisment,  forbidden;  em- 
ployed child  must  have 
school  certificate. 

Exemption. — If  earnings  are 
required  to  support  aged 
or  infirm  relative. 

Enforcement. — No  provision. 
1893 — An  Act  to  regulate  the  manu- 
facture of  clothing,  wearing 
apparel,  and  other  articles 
in  this  state,  and  to  pro- 
vide for  the  appointment 
of  state  inspectors  to  en- 
force the  same,  and  to 


EDUCATION  AND  CHILD  LABOR  LAWS 


443 


COMPULSORY  EDUCATION 

Exemption. — Physical  or  men- 
tal inability;  instruction 
elsewhere;  excused  for  suf- 
ficient reason  by  com- 
petent court  of  record. 

Enforcement. — Board  of  Edu- 
cation may  appoint  truant 
officers  as  in  1889.  One 
member  of  board  to  be 
appointed  to  hear  reasons 
for  non-attendance. 


1897  An  Act  to  promote  attend- 
ance of  children  in  schools 
and  to  prevent  truancy. 

Age  limits. — 7  to  14. 

Period  of  attendance. — 16 
weeks  annually,  12  to  be 
consecutive,  at  public  or 
private  day  school.  Term 
for  children  under  10  to 
commence  with  school 
year;  for  children  over 
10  not  later  than  Decem- 
ber i. 

Exemptions. — Mental  or 
physical  inability;  in- 
struction elsewhere;  ex- 
cused for  sufficient  reason 
by  competent  court  of 
record. 

Enforcement. — Board  of  Edu- 
cation to  appoint  truant 
officers  as  in  1889. 


CHILD  LABOR 

make     an     appropriation 
therefor. 

Age  and  occupation. — Em- 
ployment of  child  under 
14  in  manufacturing  estab- 
lishment, factory,  or  work- 
shop forbidden.  Parent  to 
make  age  affidavit  for 
employed  child  between 
14  and  16.  Certificate  of 
physical  fitness  may  be 
required. 

Duty  of  employer. — Must 
keep  register  of  all  em- 
ployees under  16. 

Enforcement. — State    factory 

inspectors. 

1897  An  Act  to  regulate  the  em- 
ployment of  children  in  the 
state  of  Illinois  and  to  pro- 
vide for  the  enforcement 
thereof. 

Age  and  occupation. — No 
child  under  14  to  work  for 
wages.  Extra  hazardous 
employment  forbidden  for 
children  under  16.  Age 
affidavits  required.  Pres- 
ence of  child  under  16  in 
work  place  prima  facie  evi- 
dence of  employment. 

Hours  of  labor. — No  child 
under  16  to  work  more 
than  10  hours  a  day,  60 
hours  a  week. 

Duty  of  employer. — Must 
keep  register  of  all  em- 
ployees under  16. 


444     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


COMPULSORY  EDUCATION 


1899  An  Act  to  enable  boards  of 
education  or  boards  of 
school  trustees  to  estab- 
lish and  maintain  parental 
or  truant  schools. 

Establishment. — Mandatory 
within  two  years  in  cities 
of  100,000  or  over;  in 
cities  of  25,000  to  100,000 
at  any  time  by  majority 
vote.  No  school  to  be  at  or 
near  any  penal  institution. 

Commitment. — Child  guilty 
of  truancy  or  habitual 
violation  of  school  rules 
may  be  committed  by 
court,  to  be  kept  till  14, 
unless  previously  convicted 
of  offense  punishable  by 
confinement  in  penal  insti- 
tution. 

Parole. — To  be  granted  if 
record  is  satisfactory. 
Child  who  violates  parole 
to  be  returned  to  Parental 
School,  and  not  to  be 
paroled  again  for  specified 
term.  Principal  of  school 
attended  by  paroled  child 
must  report  each  month 
to  Parental  School. 

Miscellaneous.  —  Incorrigible 
child  may  be  transferred 
to  reformatory.  Parents  to 
supply  clothing.  Rules  of 
management  in  general 
same  as  for  public  schools. 


CHILD  LABOR 

Enforcement. — State    factory 

inspectors. 

1899  An  Act  to  revise  the  laws  in 
relation  to  coal  mines  and 
subjects  relating  thereto 
and  providing  for  the 
health  and  safety  of  per- 
sons employed  therein. 
(Child  labor  provisions  same 
as  in  act  of  1887.) 


EDUCATION  AND  CHILD  LABOR  LAWS 


445 


COMPULSORY  EDUCATION 
1903    An  Act  to  amend  the  act  of 

1897. 

Age  limits. — 7  to  14. 
Period  of  attendance. — Public 

or  private  day  school,  for 

entire    session;     not    less 

than   no  days  of  actual 

teaching. 
Exemptions. — Same  as  in  act 

of  1897. 
Enforcement. — Same  as  in  act 

of  1897. 


1907    An  Act  to  amend  act  of  1897 
as  amended  in  1903. 


CHILD  LABOR 

1903  An  Act  to  regulate  the  em- 
ployment of  children  in  the 
State  of  Illinois,  and  to  pro- 
vide for  the  enforcement 
thereof. 

Age  and  occupation. — Em- 
ployment of  all  children 
under  14,  and  of  children 
between  14  and  16  at 
specified  dangerous  trades 
forbidden.  Girls  14  to  16 
not  to  do  work  requiring 
constant  standing;  chil- 
dren 14  to  16  must  have  age 
and  school  certificates;  if 
illiterate  must  attend  eve- 
ning school.  Presence  of 
child  under  16  in  work 
place  prima  facie  evidence 
of  employment. 

Hours  of  labor. — Children 
under  16  not  to  work  more 
than  8  hours  a  day,  48 
hours  a  week.  Night 
work  forbidden. 

Duty  of  employer. — Must 
keep  register  of  all  em- 
ployees under  16. 

Enforcement. — State    factory 

inspectors. 
1905    An  Act  to  amend  act  of  1809. 

Age  and  occupation. — Child 
under  16  not  to  work  in 
any  mine.  Parent  to 
make  age  affidavit. 

Enforcement. — State  mine  in- 
spectors. 


446     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


1909 


COMPULSORY  EDUCATION 

Age  limits. — 7  to  16. 

Period  of  attendance.  Same 
as  in  act  of  1003. 

Exemptions. — Mental  or 
physical  inability;  instruc- 
tion elsewhere;  excused 
temporarily  for  cause  by 
teachers;  between  14  and 
16  excused  if  necessarily 
and  lawfully  employed. 

Enforcement. — Same  as  in  act 
of  1903. 

An  Act  to  establish  and  main- 
tain a  system  of  free 
schools  (Sees.  274,  275). 

Age  limits. — 7  to  16. 

Period  of  attendance. — Public 
or  private  school  for  entire 
session;  not  less  than  six 
months  of  actual  teaching. 

Exemptions. — Same  as  in  act 
of  1907. 

Enforcement. — Same  as  in  act 
of  1907. 


CHILD  LABOR 


1911  An  Act  to  revise  the  laws  in 
relation  to  coal  mines  and 
subjects  relating  thereto, 
and  providing  for  the 
health  and  safety  of  per- 
sons employed  therein. 
(Child  labor  provisions  same 
as  in  act  of  1905.) 


APPENDIX  VI 

A  NOTE'  ON  STATISTICS  RELATING  TO  SCHOOL  ATTEND- 
ANCE IN  CHICAGO 

Consideration  of  the  problem  of  truancy  necessarily  involves  a 
study  of  statistics  of  school  attendance  and  enrolment.  Exact 
information  on  these  points,  however,  is  difficult  to  obtain.  To 
answer  with  any  degree  of  precision  the  questions  that  arise  as 
to  enrolment  in  the  Chicago  schools,  irregularity  of  attendance, 
distribution  of  children  between  public  and  private  schools,  and  like 
problems,  it  is  necessary  to  study  the  Proceedings  and  Annual 
Reports  of  the  Board  of  Education,  the  Biennial  School  Census,  and 
the  Official  Catholic  Directory.  The  first  two  deal  with  the  public 
schools  only,  and  give  figures  which  are  practically  the  same,  those 
in  the  Reports  being  derived  from  those  in  the  Proceedings.  The 
School  Census  figures,  which  differ  considerably  from  those  in  the 
Reports  of  the  Board  of  Education,  are  for  both  public  and  private 
schools;  but  for  the  most  important  group  of  private  institutions, 
the  Catholic  parochial  schools,  the  Official  Catholic  Directory  is  our 
only  source  of  information. 

Even  with  so  many  sets  of  facts  at  hand,  it  is  impossible  to  ascer- 
tain exactly  the  number  of  school  children  in  Chicago.  Turning  first 
to  the  public  schools,  we  find  that  the  Proceedings  of  the  Board  of 
Education  give  us,  during  the  seventeen  years  studied,  tables  of  total 
enrolment,  average  daily  membership,  average  daily  attendance,  and 
total  membership.  There  are  also  tables  of  membership  in  the 
separate  departments  of  the  school  system,  and,  after  1900,  in  the 
schools  for  defectives,  the  Parental  School,  and  the  John  Worthy 
School.  All  these  tables  are  given  for  each  month  of  the  school 
year.  Our  interest  centers,  however,  in  the  tables  of  monthly 

1  For  this  note  we  are  indebted  to  Natalie  Walker,  research  student, 
1914-15,  and  to  Fanny  R.  Sweeny  (now  Mrs.  Wickes),  research  student, 
1911-12. 

447 


448     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


enrolment  and  membership  for  the  whole  system,  their  meaning  and 
the  relations  between  them. 

Each  year,  as  Table  I  shows,  the  enrolment — that  is,  the  number 
of  children  who  have  been  registered  at  any  time  during  the  year — 
increases  noticeably  from  September  to  June.  This  gain  is  so  great 

TABLE  I 

TOTAL  ENROLMENT  IN  CHICAGO  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  FOR  MONTHS  or  SEP- 
TEMBER AND  JUNE,  WITH  EXCESS  OF  JUNE  OVER  SEPTEMBER,  FOR 
THE  SCHOOL  YEARS  1897-98  TO  1913-14* 


YEAR 

ENROLMENT 

EXCESS  OP  JUNE 
OVER  SEPTEMBER 

September 

June 

1897-08.  . 

208,574 
215,682 
222,739 
229,890 

234,593 
239,331 
246,597 
251,067 

254,379 
255,798 
255,212 
260,331 
261,683 
265,552 
268,595 
274,533 

286,492 

236,239 
242,807 
255,86i 
262,738 
268,392 

274,247 
279,183 
282,346 
287,113 
286,766 
292,580 
296,427 
301,172 
304,146 
307,281 
315,737 
332,248 

27,665 
27,125 

33,122 

32,848 

33,799 
34,9i6 
32,586 
3J,279 
32,734 
30,968 
37,368 
36,096 
39,489 
38,594 
38,686 
41,204 
45,756 

1808—00.  . 

1899—1900  

1900—1901  

IOOI—  2       

IQO2—  3  .  . 

IQO3—  4.  . 

IOO4.—  ">  .  . 

JOOC—  6.  . 

1906—  7  

1007-  8.  . 

1008—  o  .  . 

1909—10  

1910-11  

1911—12  

IQI2—  13.  . 

IQI3—I4..  . 

*  Data  from  monthly  tables  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education. 

that  it  raises  a  question  as  to  whether  it  can  represent  so  great  an 
actual  increase  in  the  number  of  children  attending  school,  especially 
since  the  number  drops  again  the  following  September.  Some  of  the 
difference  is,  of  course,  due  merely  to  later  entrance.  Other  possible 
causes  of  increase  are  the  entrance  of  children  reaching  seven  years 
of  age,  and  the  entrance  of  those  coming  from  private  schools  and 
from  other  cities.  This,  however,  could  hardly  account  for  so  great 
a  gam,  especially  as  there  are  counterbalancing  losses  constantly 


SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  STATISTICS 


449 


going  on,  when  children  leave  school  at  the  upper  age  limit,  change 
to  private  schools,  or  move  to  other  cities.  It  seems  probable,  there- 
fore, that  much  of  this  gain  is  due  to  duplicate  enrolment,  that  is,  the 
registration  in  the  books  of  both  schools  of  children  who  have  been 
transferred  from  one  public  school  to  another.  As  to  this,  however, 
we  can  only  guess  since  there  is  no  separate  enumeration  of  transfers 
and  readmissions. 

The  supposition  that  duplicate  enrolment  may  be  an  explanation 
for  the  great  increase  in  the  figures  from  September  to  June  is  sup- 
ported by  a  study  of  the  tables  of  monthly  membership,  that  is,  the 
number  of  children  who  are  in  fairly  regular  attendance  at  school. 
Table  II  shows  that  not  only  is  the  smallest  enrolment  (September) 

TABLE  II 

COMPARISON  OF  LARGEST  MONTHLY  MEMBERSHIP  IN  CHICAGO  PUBLIC 
SCHOOLS  WITH  SMALLEST  MONTHLY  ENROLMENT  (SEPTEMBER), 
AND  DECREASE  IN  MEMBERSHIP  FROM  SEPTEMBER  TO  JUNE, 
FOR  THE  SCHOOL  YEARS  1897-98  TO  1913-14* 


Year 

Months  in  Which 
Membership  Was 
Largest 

Surplus  of  Sep- 
tember Enrolment 
over  Largest 
Monthly 
Membership 

Decrease  in 
Membership  from 
September  to 
June 

1807-08.  . 

October 

4  037 

9  898 

1808—  QQ  . 

November 

4.  4.71 

TA.  727 

1899-190x2  

October 

^,622 

8,467 

1900-1901  

October 

4,638 

II     8O7 

1901—   2  

October 

C,I^2 

II   178 

IQO2—    3  . 

October 

6  1  70 

12  277 

IQO3—    4 

October 

c  088 

6  O?2 

1904-  5  

November 

6,047 

9.720 

1905-  6  

September 

7,08=5 

11.306 

1906-  7  

September 

7,o6it 

14.  2<;6 

1907-  8  

October 

6,660 

6  242 

1008—  o  .  . 

November 

8,288 

8  568 

IQOQ-IO.  . 

September 

8  601; 

8684 

1910-11  

September 

8.IOQ 

ii.eas 

1911—12  

September 

8,398 

7,776 

1912-13.  . 

October 

8,221 

7  088 

1913-14  

September 

8,283 

A  4.00 

*  Based  on  monthly  tables  of  enrolment  and  membership  in  Proceedings  of  the  Chicago 
Board  of  Education. 

t  Membership  for  April  larger,  but  obviously  a  misprint. 


450     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

invariably  considerably  larger  than  the  largest  monthly  membership, 
but  that,  though  the  enrolment  increases  steadily  from  September  to 
June,  the  membership  decreases.  This  falling  off  in  membership  can 
scarcely  be  attributed  to  transfers,  as  in  that  case  the  gains  would 
offset  the  losses.  It  may,  however,  be  due  to  an  excess  of  losses 
over  gains  from  private  schools  and  other  cities;  to  the  excess  of  those 
leaving  school  when  they  become  fourteen  over  those  entering  when 
they  become  seven;  to  illness  or  incapacity;  to  truancy,  working 
under  age,  or  other  illegal  absence.  How  the  losses  apportion  them- 
selves among  these  possible  causes  cannot  be  determined. 

If,  then,  we  are  asked,  "How  many  children  are  there  in  the 
public  schools  ?  "  we  have  a  considerable  range  of  numbers  from  which 
to  select  a  reply.  It  may  be  that  the  largest  membership  will  come 
nearest  to  showing  the  number  of  children  actually  in  school.  If, 
however,  we  prefer  the  enrolment  figures,  we  are  at  a  loss  to  know 
which  to  select.  It  would  seem  that  September  or  October  would 
probably  contain  the  smallest  number  of  duplications;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  Board  of  Education  gives  the  June  enrolment  as  the 
number  of  children  for  the  year,  and  it  is  possible,  and  in  some  cases 
certain,  that  other  cities  also  report  the  largest  enrolment  as  the 
number  for  the  year.  The  School  Census  gives  us  still  another  set 
of  totals.  In  1904  the  number  of  children  attending  the  public 
schools  as  given  in  the  School  Census  corresponds  most  nearly  to  that 
given  in  the  Proceedings  as  the  September  enrolment.  In  1006  the 
census  number  lies  between  the  membership  for  September  and  that 
for  October,  and  is  considerably  less  than  the  September  enrolment. 
In  1908,  however,  it  is  nearest  to  the  October  enrolment,  and  in 
1910  it  lies  between  the  enrolments  for  February  and  for  March. 
For  1912  the  census  figure  is  considerably  larger  than  the  June  enrol- 
ment, but  in  1914,  though  the  census  was  taken  in  May,  the  total 
number  of  children  recorded  as  attending  the  public  schools  corre- 
sponds exactly  to  the  June  enrolment.  This  coincidence  is  even  more 
startling  when  we  recall  the  fact  that  the  census  supposedly  includes 
in  its  total  not  only  the  children  in  public  schools,  but  also  the  large 
number  who  are  enrolled  in  private  schools. 

The  School  Census  figures  are  obviously  useless  for  checking  those 
given  in  the  Proceedings  and  Reports  of  the  Board  of  Education.  Not 


SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  STATISTICS 


451 


only  do  the  totals  vary  greatly,  but  the  figures  are  given  in  the  Pro- 
ceedings by  school  divisions  and  by  age  at  the  time  of  first  enrolment, 
and  in  the  census  by  age  at  the  time  of  enumeration.  Comparison 
between  the  two  sets  of  figures  is  impossible.  Furthermore,  as  the 
age  grouping  changes  considerably,  the  census  figures  from  year  to 
year  are  not  readily  comparable  with  each  other. 

Returning  to  a  consideration  of  the  numbers  of  children  hi  the 
schools,  we  find  that,  if  the  School  Census  returns  are  unsatisfactory 
for  comparison  with  those  given  by  the  Board  of  Education,  they 
are  equally  so  for  comparison  with  those  for  the  Catholic  parochial 
schools.  No  census  taken  after  1900  makes  any  distinction  between 
these  schools  and  other  private  schools,  and  censuses  taken  before 
1900  give  figures  of  doubtful  accuracy.  In  order  to  study  the  num- 
bers in  this  most  important  group  of  private  schools  it  was  therefore 
necessary  to  turn  to  the  Official  Catholic  Directory,  and  Table  III 

TABLE  III 

STATISTICS  OF  ENROLMENT  OF  CATHOLIC  PAROCHIAL  SCHOOLS  OF  CHICAGO 
FOR  THE  SCHOOL  YEARS  1897-98  TO  1913-14*  f 


YEAR 

GIVEN  TOTAL 

COMPUTED  TOTAL 

All  Schools 

Minus  High  Schools 
Named 

1807-08.  . 

44,893 
50,301 
57,419 
65,438 
68,432 
72,351 

76,532 
79,861 
84,694 
86,055 
88,709 
90,834 
94,520 

1800—  1000 

IQOI—    2  

IQO^-   4.  . 

IOO4-    <  .  . 

68,004 
68,004 
68,004 
68,520 
78,200 
81,680 

82,975 
90,500 

94,315 
95,no 

64,463 
69,611 

IQCX-  6.  . 

1006-  7  .  . 

1907-  8  

73,707 
77,491 
82,084 
83,188 
87,249 
89,941 
93,284 

1908-  9  

IOOO-IO.  . 

1910-11  

1911-12  

IQI2-I3.  . 

IQIV-  14.  . 

*Excluding  1898-99,  1900-1901,  1902-3. 

fBased  on  figures  in  Official  Catholic  Directory  for  years  cited. 

^Figures  for  separate  schools  not  found. 


452     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

presents  statistics  of  enrolment  for  the  Catholic  parochial  schools  of 
Chicago  for  a  series  of  years.  Before  1905  the  enrolment  is  given 
biennially  for  each  school,  and  from  these  data,  totals  for  the  city 
were  computed.  For  1905,  however,  and  for  every  year  thereafter,  a 
total  for  the  city  is  given.  For  several  years,  however,  these  totals 
are  almost  certainly  inaccurate,  as  the  figures  for  1905,  1906,  and  1907 
are  exactly  the  same,  and  1908,  as  Table  III  shows,  makes  only  a  very 
slight  change.  This  inaccuracy,  together  with  some  uncertainty  as 
to  what  is  included  in  the  given  total,  as  well  as  the  fact  that  the 
totals  prior  to  1905  were  of  necessity  computed,  made  it  seem  best, 
in  dealing  with  the  parochial  schools,  to  use  the  computed  grand  total, 
including,  so  far  as  we  know,  all  schools,  grades,  and  ages. 

There  is  general  agreement  among  the  parochial  school  teachers 
that  the  reports  sent  to  the  Directory  are  based  on  enrolment  at  the 
end  of  the  school  year,  and  comparison  may  therefore  fairly  be  made 
between  the  June  enrolment  for  the  public  schools,  and  the  com- 
puted totals  for  the  parochial  schools.  This  comparison  has  been 
made  in  Table  IV,  which  shows  a  steady  gain  in  numbers  for  the 
parochial  as  well  as  for  the  public  schools.  Though  the  transfers 
between  public  and  private  schools  may  fairly  be  assumed  to  cancel 
each  other  in  the  course  of  a  year,  it  is  most  probable  that  the  Catholic 
school  figures,  like  those  for  the  public  schools,  contain  many  dupli- 
cations. For  this  reason  the  sum  of  the  two  enrolments  would 
probably  be  somewhat  greater  than  the  actual  number  registered  in 
the  schools. 

The  steady  gain  in  the  Catholic  school  enrolment  is  even  more 
apparent  in  Table  V,  which  shows,  in  so  far  as  it  can  be  ascertained, 
the  distribution  of  school  children  between  the  two  systems.1  It 
will  be  observed  that  from  1897  to  1904,  we  have  figures  for  alternate 
years  only.  Comparable  parochial  school  figures  for  the  other  years 

1  In  making  this  computation  we  have  assumed  that  the  number  of 
pupils  enrolled  in  all  schools  equals  the  total  for  the  public  schools  (June 
enrolment)  plus  the  computed  totals  for  the  Catholic  parochial  schools.  To 
this  was  added  4  per  cent  of  the  combined  total  to  represent  the  other 
private  schools.  We  find  that  when  the  census  gives  figures  for  these 
schools,  as  in  1898  and  1900,  the  number  practically  equals  this  4  per 
cent  of  the  combined  total.  In  the  absence  of  information  to  the  contrary, 
we  have  assumed  this  proportion  to  be  constant. 


SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  STATISTICS 


453 


are  lacking.  After  1904  the  figures  are,  with  one  exception,  given  for 
every  year.  It  is  obvious  that,  while  both  the  Catholic  and  the  public 
schools  show  a  marked  gain  in  actual  numbers,  the  proportion  of 
children  in  the  Catholic  schools  is  increasing  rapidly  at  the  expense 
of  the  public  schools,  which  show  a  relatively  decreasing  enrolment. 

TABLE  IV 

COMPARISON  OF  NUMBERS  ENROLLED  IN  PUBLIC  AND 

CATHOLIC  PAROCHIAL  SCHOOLS  OF  CHICAGO 

FOR  THE  SCHOOL  YEARS  1897-98  TO 

1913-14 


Year 

June  Enrolment 
Public  Schools 

Computed  Total 
Catholic  Parochial 
Schools 

1807-08    . 

236,230 

44,803 

1  8o8-QO.  . 

242,807 

* 

1800-1000.  . 

255,861 

5O,OOI 

1900—  I  

262,78"? 

1901—  2  

268,^02 

57,149 

IQO2—    3     . 

274,247 

IQO3—   4 

270,l83 

65,438 

IOO4-    «,  .  . 

282,346 

68,423 

IQOS,—  6.  . 

287,113 

72,351 

1006—  7  .  . 

286,766 

1007—  8.  . 

2Q2,<8l 

76,532 

1008—  o  . 

206,427 

79,861 

IQOQ-IO.  . 

3OI,I72 

84,694 

I9IO-II  

304,146 

86,055 

I9II-I2  

307,281 

88,709 

1012—  13     . 

•lie,  737 

00,834 

I9I3-I4..  . 

332,248 

94,520 

*Comparable  figures  not  given. 
fFigures  for  separate  schools  not  found. 

From  this  cursory  attempt  to  answer  some  of  the  most  frequently 
recurring  questions  as  to  school  attendance,  it  is  evident  that  the 
information  available  is  most  unsatisfactory.  The  difficulty  seems, 
in  general,  to  be  due  rather  to  a  careless  presentation  of  material 
than  to  lack  of  facts.  The  exception  to  this  is,  of  course,  the  matter 
of  duplicate  enrolment.  Account  should  be  kept  not  only  of  trans- 
fers between  public  schools,  and  from  public  to  private  schools,  but 


454    TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


also  of  readmissions  to  the  public  schools.  If  these  facts  were 
properly  recorded,  it  would  be  possible  to  tell,  from  year  to  year, 
exactly  how  many  children  were  enrolled  in  the  city  schools.  This 
number  would  agree,  approximately,  with  the  total  membership  of 
the  schools,  and  we  should  not  be  called  upon  annually,  as  we  are  now, 
to  explain  the  problem  of  a  steadily  increasing  enrolment  and  a 
steadily  decreasing  membership. 

TABLE  V 

DISTRIBUTION  OF   CHILDREN  IN   CHICAGO   SCHOOLS 

BETWEEN  PUBLIC  AND  CATHOLIC  PAROCHIAL 

SCHOOLS 


YEAR* 

NUMBER  PER  1,000  SCHOOL  CHILDREN 

Public  Schools 

Catholic  Parochial 
Schools 

1807-98.  . 

809 
803 
792 
778 

773 
768 
762 

755 
75° 
749 
746 

747 
749 

153 
157 
169 
182 
I87 
183 
199 
204 
211 
212 
215 
215 
213 

1800—1000.  . 

I9OI—    2     

IQO3—   4.    . 

IQO4-    <  .  . 

loo"?—  6.  . 

IQO7—   8.  . 

1008—  o.  . 

IQOQ—  IO.  . 

igiO—II     

I9II—I2  

IQI2—  I*.  . 

IQI3-I4.  . 

*As  the  enrolment  for  the  separate  Catholic  schools  was  not 
given  in  1906-7,  it  was  impossible  to  compute  the  total  enrolment, 
and  was  therefore  necessary  to  omit  from  the  table  the  figures  for 
this  year. 


The  school  census  may  be  expected  ultimately  to  furnish  valuable 
attendance  statistics  but  the  statistical  work  should  be  more  care- 
fully done  than  it  has  been  in  the  past.  All  children  of  compulsory 
school  age  should  be  systematically  and  logically  accounted  for.  It 
ought  to  be  possible  to  ascertain  from  the  school  census  the  total 
number  and  the  regularity  of  attendance  of  children  enrolled  in  public, 
parochial,  and  other  private  schools. 


APPENDIX  VII 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHICAGO  BUREAU  OF  EMPLOY- 
MENT SUPERVISION 

Attention  has  been  called  to  the  helplessness  of  many  children 
who  take  their  working  papers  at  fourteen.  Most  helpless  of  all, 
perhaps  as  a  group,  are  the  boys  released  from  the  Parental 
School  because  they  have  reached  this  age  and  under  the  law  can 
no  longer  be  held.1  Very  few  of  these  boys  return  to  school.  They 
were  sent  to  the  Parental  School  because  they  were  in  need  of  special 
training  and  care  which  their  own  homes  and  the  day  school  could 
not  give,  and  when  they  leave  the  Parental  School  they  are  hi  pecu- 
liar need  of  help.  They  are  without  jobs  and  they  have  no  one  at 
home  able  to  find  jobs  for  them.  They  are,  in  fact,  hi  greater  need 
of  help  than  the  majority  of  other  children  given  working  papers  who 
have  been  in  their  own  homes  all  the  time  and  who  are  therefore 
more  likely  to  be  put  hi  touch  with  opportunities  for  work. 

Because  of  the  character  of  the  homes  from  which  these  boys  came 
and  because  of  the  helplessness  of  the  boys  themselves  when  they 
left  the  school,  advantage  was  taken  of  the  opportunity  offered  by  this 
investigation  to  advise  with  them  with  reference  to  their  choice  of 
work,  and  to  assist  them  to  find  work  when  they  were  unwilling  or 
unable  to  return  to  the  regular  day  school.  The  attempt  was  made 
to  understand  the  problem  of  employment  as  they  faced  it,  both 
because  it  would  add  to  the  results  of  the  investigation  and  because  a 
genuine  service  might  be  rendered  to  the  children.  A  small  employ- 
ment bureau  for  these  boys  was  therefore  organized  in  connection 
with  the  Department  of  Social  Investigation  at  the  Chicago  School 
of  Civics  and  Philanthropy  in  order  to  get  directly  from  and  with 
them  the  experience  of  finding  and  keeping  "a  job"  in  Chicago. 
This  seemed  relevant  to  an  inquiry  into  the  adequacy  of  the  com- 

1  It  is  not  possible  to  obtain  the  number  of  these  boys  from  the  Reports 
of  the  Board  of  Education.  There  seem  to  have  been  797  between  1902  and 
1913  (see  Fifty-ninth  Annual  Report  of  the  Chicago  Board  of Education,  p.  298). 

455 


456     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

pulsory  education  law,  the  effectiveness  of  the  court  as  a  device  for 
strengthening  the  school,  and  the  reasonableness  of  accepting  "law- 
ful employment"  as  a  substitute  for  schooling  during  these  two 
important  years  of  the  child's  life. 

To  try  to  assist  boys  or  girls  in  finding  work  is  a  task  not  to  be 
lightly  undertaken.  Ijt  means  not  only  a  thoroughgoing  investi- 
gation into  opportunities  of  employment  open  to  children  under 
sixteen,  but  a  careful  study  of  the  particular  child.  On  the  one  hand, 
it  means  interviews  with  employers  and  foremen,  and  on  the  other, 
interviews  with  the  child  before  he  leaves  school,  with  his  teachers, 
and  with  parents  in  the  home — interviews  which  give  as  complete 
information  as  can  be  gained  of  what  the  boy  wants  to  do  and  thinks 
he  can  do,  of  what  his  teachers  believe  him  to  be  fitted  for  physically 
and  mentally,  and  most  important  of  all,  the  judgment  of  his  parents, 
their  hopes  and  fears  if  they  will  share  them,  and  such  light  as  his 
home  circumstances  and  relationships  throw  on  the  possibilities  of 
his  working  career.  This  is,  of  course,  only  half  the  battle.  There 
is  also  the  selection,  from  among  all  of  the  available  jobs  that  can  be 
found,  of  the  one  to  which  the  boy  seems  best  adapted,  and  then  fre- 
quently the  difficult  task  of  persuading  the  boy  to  give  up  being  a 
messenger  boy  or  some  other  wasteful  occupation  on  which  he  may 
have  set  his  heart,  convincing  the  parents  perhaps  to  take  a  lower 
wage  at  the  start  in  a  job  which  is  going  to  mean  learning  as  well  as 
earning,  and,  finally,  constant  communication  with  the  boy  after  he 
is  placed;  for  watching  the  child  after  a  job  has  been  found  is  as 
important  as  finding  the  job.  The  temptation  to  leave  one  employer 
and  "try  another"  is  in  the  air.  Boys  give  up  their  jobs  on  the  most 
trivial  pretexts  and  often  without  telling  the  employer  they  intend 
to  leave.  In  such  cases  it  is  often  possible  to  persuade  the  employer 
to  give  the  boy  another  trial,  to  show  the  boy  how  much  he  may  gam 
by  working  steadily  for  the  same  firm,  and  to  explain  to  the  parents 
the  dangers  of  casual  habits.  The  task  is  not  a  simple  task.  It 
involves  often  many  interviews,  much  firm  but  gentle  dealing  with 
boy  and  parents,  and  close  co-operation  with  employer;  but  it  also 
means  a  knowledge  of  the  chaos  surrounding  fourteen-year-old  boys 
entering  the  wage-earning  market  unguarded  and  unguided — a 
knowledge  uhirh  is  worth  all  it  costs. 


CHICAGO  EMPLOYMENT  SUPERVISION  BUREAU     457 

The  same  problem  presents  itself  to  the  fourteen-year-old  girls 
who  are  leaving  school  to  go  to  work,  and  the  same  method  is  of  even 
greater  value  in  the  case  of  girls  than  of  boys;  because,  few  as  are 
the  opportunities  of  an  industrially  promising  kind  for  boys,  they 
are  fewer  for  girls,  since  most  employments  for  women  today  are  in 
fact  "blind-alley"  or  "dead  end"  employments.  Moreover,  the 
problem  of  school  attendance  for  girls  is  one  to  which  much  less  atten- 
tion has  been  given.  The  number  of  girls  whose  attendance  is  so 
irregular  or  whose  conduct  so  bad  as  to  call  for  action  on  the  part  of 
the  Compulsory  Education  Department  is  almost  negligible;  and 
few  of  these  are  brought  into  the  Juvenile  Court.  There  is  no 
Parental  School  for  girls.  We  therefore  had  no  opportunity  to 
undertake  in  connection  with  our  Juvenile  Court  inquiry  the  same 
investigational  experiment  for  girls  which  we  undertook  for  the 
Parental  School  boys.  But  by  the  co-operation  of  three  women's 
organizations,  the  Chicago  Woman's  Club,  the  Chicago  Association 
of  Collegiate  Alumnae,  and  the  Woman's  City  Club,  we  were  enabled 
to  obtain  at  first  for  a  period  of  four  months  and  later,  permanently, 
a  special  investigator  who  was  peculiarly  fitted  for  the  work  of 
investigating  employment  opportunities  for  girls. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  school  year,  as  the  knowledge  of  trade 
conditions  accumulated  and  the  connection  with  good  employers 
became  gradually  established,  we  were  able  to  take  care  of  a  very 
considerable  number  of  children  sent  to  us  by  the  settlements  who 
knew  of  our  experimental  work,  and  by  the  United  Charities  and 
some  other  organizations.  In  particular,  especially  handicapped 
children  were  sent  to  us,  a  one-armed  girl,  a  lame  boy,  a  deaf  and 
dumb  girl,  and  undersized  or  delicate  children  who  were  in  work  that 
was  too  hard  for  them  or  unsuitable  for  other  reasons. 

In  the  month  of  June  we  undertook  to  interview  and  to  place  all 
of  the  children  in  the  Washburne  School,  one  of  the  largest  schools  on 
the  West  Side,  who  were  planning  to  go  to  work  at  the  end  of  the 
school  year.  Office  hours  were  kept  in  a  neighboring  settlement, 
the  Henry  Booth  House,  which  generously  offered  space,  and 
the  school  principal  was  glad  to  co-operate  by  sending  the 
children  to  us  and  by  giving  his  personal  advice.  In  addition  to 
interviews  with  the  children,  visits  to  all  the  homes  were  made,  and 


458     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

when  the  parents  seemed  able  to  keep  the  child  in  school  longer,  they 
were  strongly  urged  to  do  so. 

At  this  early  period  in  our  experiment,  the  work  received  a  cer- 
tain official  sanction  from  the  educational  authorities.  The  data 
gathered  by  the  investigator1  were  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  prin- 
cipal of  the  Lucy  Flower  Technical  High  School,  which  was  opened 
in  September  1911,  so  that  various  questions  connected  with  the  cur- 
riculum of  that  school  could  be  determined  with  reference  to  trade 
opportunities  for  girls.  At  the  request  of  Mrs.  Young,  superinten- 
dent of  schools,  office  hours  were  held  in  the  school  building  in 
order  to  advise  the  girls  taking  technical  training  with  reference 
to  their  selection  of  a  trade  and  their  placement  at  the  end  of  their 
course. 

After  the  close  of  the  first  year,  the  work  was  continued  under 
the  Joint  Committee,  supported  by  the  various  woman's  clubs  of 
Chicago.  The  Chicago  Women's  Aid  Society  undertook  the  support 
of  a  worker  who  would  handle  the  cases  of  Jewish  children,  and  the 
Joint  Committee  entered  upon  a  policy  of  raising  so-called  scholar- 
ships for  children  who  were  wholly  unfit  to  be  placed  and  whose 
family  needs  were  too  great  to  allow  of  their  remaining  longer  in 
school  without  aid. 

On  January  12,  1912,  through  the  interest  and  co-operation  of 
Miss  Addams,  the  Hull-House  Trade  School  was  opened.  On  May 
15  the  Joint  Committee  undertook  to  pay  the  salary  of  another 
visitor,  and  in  October  of  that  year  the  Association  of  Commerce 
undertook  the  support  of  a  worker.  From  that  time  until  February, 
1916,  the  staff  consisted  of  four  persons,  the  director  and  three 
other  "visitors"  working  under  her  supervision.  In  March,  1913, 
the  Board  of  Education  recognized  the  work  more  definitely  by 
allotting  office  space  in  the  Jones  School,  near  the  headquarters  of 
the  Certificate  Issuing  Bureau,  by  providing  clerical  assistance  and 
telephone  service,  and  by  placing  the  work  under  the  general  super- 
vision of  one  of  the  district  superintendents.  On  May  i,  1913, 

'To  this  investigator,  Miss  Anne  S.  Davis,  research  student  1907-8 
and  1908-9,  we  are  greatly  indebted  for  assistance  of  many  kinds.  Miss 
Davis  is  now  at  the  head  of  the  Bureau  of  Vocational  Supervision  in  the 
Chicago  Public  Schools. 


CHICAGO  EMPLOYMENT  SUPERVISION  BUREAU     459 

he  issued  the  following  circular  (Series  III,  No.  18)  regarding  the 
Bureau  and  its  work: 

DEPARTMENT  OF  VOCATIONAL  SUPERVISION 
A.    ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  BUREAU 

The  work  of  the  Bureau  of  Vocational  Supervision  which  has  been 
established  in  a  number  of  the  Chicago  Schools  is  an  enlargement  of  the 
work  which  has  been  carried  on  for  the  last  two  years  at  the  Lucy  Flower 
Technical  High  School  through  a  general  office  maintained  by  a  number  of 
private  organizations.  A  central  office  has  been  established  in  the  rooms  of 
the  Board  of  Education,  and  office  hours  are  held  in  a  number  of  schools  in 
which  it  seems  the  workers  might  be  of  service  in  advising  children. 

The  Bureau  for  two  years  has  been  making  a  special  study  of  the  indus- 
trial opportunities  open  to  boys  and  girls  who  are  leaving  school  to  go  to 
work.  As  a  result  of  this  study  it  is  obvious  that  there  is  little  prospect  for 
the  child  who  leaves  school  at  fourteen,  and  that  there  is  a  great  need  for 
continued  education  and  training.  With  this  fund  of  information  concern- 
ing conditions  of  employment  the  Bureau  is  prepared  to  interview  children 
and  parents  and  advise  them  with  regard  to  the  most  suitable  occupations 
and  further  educational  courses. 

B.      AIM  OF  THE  BUREAU 

1.  To  encourage  boys  and  girls  to  remain  and  to  continue  their  edu- 
cation after  leaving  the  Elementary  School. 

2.  To  refrain  from  suggesting  to  the  child  the  possibilities  of  going  to 
work  before  it  is  absolutely  necessary. 

3.  In  case  a  child  cannot  be  persuaded  to  continue  in  school,  to  see 
that  the  children  enter  as  far  as  possible  the  trades  or  occupations  for  which 
they  seem  best  fitted. 

4.  To  suggest  to  those  children  who  enter  unskilled  employment  to 
attend  Evening  Schools  and  classes  to  qualify  themselves  to  undertake 
other  work  of  a  more  skilled  nature. 

5.  To  keep  hi  touch  with  children  who  have  been  interviewed  and  advise 
them  after  they  have  been  placed,  whether  again  in  school  or  at  work. 

C.      CO-OPERATION  OF  THE  PRINCIPALS 

The  Bureau  is  anxious  to  render  effective  and  efficient  service  to  the 
Principals  and  to  supplement  and  extend  their  work  in  advising  the  children 
who  contemplate  leaving  school  to  go  to  work. 


460     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

To  the  knowledge  which  the  Principals  and  teachers  possess  of  the 
child's  educational  qualifications,  his  inclinations,  and  perhaps  his  physical 
condition,  the  Bureau  wishes  to  add  its  information  as  to  opportunities 
open  to  children  of  this  age,  and  its  corps  of  trained  workers  who  visit  the 
homes,  consult  with  the  parents,  and  make  suggestions  as  to  the  child's 
possibilities  and  future. 

A  number  of  children,  to  whom  age  and  school  certificates  had  already 
been  issued,  have  been  returned  to  school  after  such  consultations.  The 
Bureau  feels  that  a  great  deal  more  could  be  done  if  these  children  and 
parents  were  interviewed  before  certificates  are  granted.  It  is  hoped  that 
so  far  as  possible  the  Principals  will  send  children  to  the  workers  before 
giving  them  their  certificates. 

W.  M.  ROBERTS,  District  Superintendent 
Approved: 

ELLA  FLAGG  YOUNG 
Superintendent  of  Schools 

In  March,  1914,  there  was  published  for  the  use  of  the  schools 
a  report  prepared  by  the  director  of  the  Bureau  on  Occupations  and 
Industries  open  to  Children  between  Fourteen  and  Sixteen  Years  of  Age 
in  Chicago,  and  during  that  year  Mrs.  Young  recommended  that  the 
Board  of  Education  assume  the  entire  support  of  the  Bureau  and, 
hi  anticipation  of  such  action,  asked  the  workers  in  the  Bureau  to 
qualify  for  public  service  by  taking  an  examination  which  entitled 
them  to  certificates  as  high-school  teachers.  The  recommendation  of 
the  Superintendent  was  rejected  at  that  tune,  and  the  work  of  the 
Bureau  retained  its  peculiar  semi-public  semi-private  character  until 
March  i,  1916,  when  in  accordance  with  action  taken  January,  1916, 
the  names  of  the  three  workers  still  connected  with  the  Bureau  who 
had  taken  the  examination  were  transferred  to  the  public  pay-roll. 

As  the  work  has  been  from  the  beginning  under  the  same  direc- 
tor, it  has  developed  uninterruptedly  and  without  radical  change  of 
method.  The  work  has  been  done  principally  hi  about  twenty 
schools,  where  the  principals  have  given  cordial  and  sympathetic 
co-operation.  One  object  always  held  hi  view  is  that  of  persuading 
all  children  whose  family  situation  makes  it  possible  for  them  to  do 
so  to  remain  in  school.  Consequently  a  considerable  number  of  these 
children  who  come  to  the  Bureau  before  going  to  work,  even  if  they 
have  been  given  their  working  papers,  are  persuaded  to  return  to 


CHICAGO  EMPLOYMENT  SUPERVISION  BUREAU     461 

school  or  to  remain  in  school.  It  seems  practically  impossible  to 
persuade  children  who  come  to  the  Bureau  after  having  gone  to 
work  to  return  to  school.  In  some  schools  a  representative  of  the 
Bureau  confers  with  each  child  expecting  to  graduate  with  reference 
to  his  plans.  Advantage  is  then  taken  of  the  opportunity  to  make 
known  to  the  child  the  advantages  of  going  on  to  high  school.  In 
every  case  in  which  there  is  a  possibility  of  the  child's  continuing 
his  school  life,  the  parents  are  visited  and  informed  of  the  vocational 
and  technical  training  now  available  for  their  children. 

In  several  schools,  arrangements  have  been  made  for  the  vocational 
supervisor  to  conduct  the  graduating  class  to  the  different  technical 
high  schools,  so  that  the  children  may  have  a  better  idea  of  the  kinds 
of  training  offered.  In  a  number  of  schools  talks  are  given  not  only 
to  the  graduating  class,  but  to  the  sixth  and  seventh  grades,  empha- 
sizing the  need  for  further  education  and  urging  the  children  to  remain 
in  school  until  they  are  at  least  sixteen  years  of  age.  And  principals 
of  several  of  these  schools  have  thought  that  the  influence  of  the 
Bureau  could  be  felt  in  the  decreasing  number  of  children  who  leave 
school  and  the  increasing  number  who  are  going  on  to  high  school. 

During  each  summer,  letters  are  written  to  parents  whose  children 
plan  not  to  return,  and  interviews  are  had  with  them  explaining  the 
seasonal  and  wasteful  character  of  boy  and  girl  labor  and  the  advan- 
tage of  keeping  the  children  hi  school  until  they  are  at  least  sixteen 
years  of  age.  In  the  same  way,  before  the  time  at  which  promotions 
are  made,  when  children  are  likely  to  drop  out,  the  principals  of  all 
the  schools  are  reminded  of  the  great  loss  resulting  from  failure  to 
complete  the  course  and  are  stimulated  to  urge  the  children  to  con- 
tinue in  school. 

The  numbers  of  children  served  by  this  small  group  of  workers 
has  been  very  considerable.  During  the  year  1914-15,  the  last  for 
which  complete  figures  are  at  hand,  3,568  children,  of  whom  1,809 
were  boys  and  1,759  were  girls,  were  helped  by  the  Bureau.  Of 
these,  3,519  children  had  never  worked,  and  640  were  persuaded  to 
remain  in  school  or  to  return  to  school.  How  important  this  part 
of  the  Bureau's  work  is  may  be  indicated  to  some  extent  by  the  fact 
that  1,349  children  had  gone  no  farther  than  the  sixth  grade  in 
school. 


462     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

From  the  nature  of  the  problem  presented  by  these  children,  it  is 
evident  that  the  Bureau  offers  the  opportunity  for  very  careful  and 
thorough  personal  service,  on  which  not  only  the  industrial  future 
of  the  children  but  the  well-being  of  the  family  may  depend.  The 
results  of  such  service  may  be  illustrated  by  the  case  of  Stanley 

,  who  came  to  the  Bureau  shortly  after  it  began  to  care  for 

other  than  Parental  School  boys.  Stanley  was  sixteen  years  old 
when  he  first  came  to  the  Bureau  and  was  the  next  to  the  oldest  in 
a  family  of  six  children.  His  brother  of  nineteen  had  left  school  at 
the  earliest  possible  moment,  had  drifted  from  one  job  to  another, 
and  had  become  a  casual  laborer.  His  father,  too,  worked  spas- 
modically, had  never  learned  a  trade,  nor  been  taught  to  do  anything 
well.  The  boy  was  working  in  a  box  factory  carrying  boards,  and 
earned  six  dollars  a  week.  He  was  sent  to  the  Bureau  by  the  United 
Charities,  who  had  been  assisting  the  family  from  time  to  time,  to 
see  if  he  could  be  placed  where  he  would  learn  something,  so  that  he 
would  not  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  his  father  and  brother.  He  had 
graduated  from  the  eighth  grade,  was  found  to  be  eager  and  ambitious, 
and  wanted  to  learn  the  printing  trade.  A  place  was  found  for  him 
with  a  good  printing  firm  at  an  initial  wage  of  five  dollars  a  week. 
He  has  been  in  this  same  shop  over  three  years  now,  and  is  earning 
fourteen  dollars  a  week.  A  year  later  he  sent  to  the  Bureau  his 
brother  Joseph,  who  had  just  left  school  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  having 
finished  the  seventh  grade.  Joseph  came  to  the  Bureau  for  work, 
but  he  was  encouraged  to  return  to  complete  the  eighth  grade. 
A  year  later  he  applied  for  work.  He,  too,  thought  that  he  would 
like  to  learn  the  printing  trade.  He  was  told  that  he  could  not  be 
placed  in  a  printing  shop  until  he  was  sixteen,  but  a  temporary  posi- 
tion was  found  for  him  in  an  office.  When  he  reached  his  sixteenth 
birthday,  he  was  transferred  to  a  printing  shop  where  he  began 
work  at  a  wage  of  five  dollars  a  week,  and  has  had  his  wages  raised 
several  times.  Both  boys  have  attended  one  of  the  technical  evening 
schools. 

These  boys,  because  they  were  given  a  little  advice  and  assistance, 
are  not  only  learning  a  trade  and  are  happy  in  the  work  they  are 
doing,  but  they  are  able  to  support  their  family,  which  is  no  longer 
a  burden  to  the  community. 


CHICAGO  EMPLOYMENT  SUPERVISION  BUREAU     463 

In  the  matter  of  persuading  children  to  return  to  school  some- 
times only  a  little  effort  is  necessary.  Often  "the  lady  in  the  down- 
town office"  to  whom  the  principals  send  the  children  can  do  what 
the  principals  themselves  cannot  do.  But  sometimes  a  great  deal  of 
effort  is  necessary;  for  example,  a  boy  who  applied  for  his  working 
permit,  was  leaving  school  because  several  of  his  friends  were  working, 
and  had  offered  to  get  him  a  job.  At  first  he  would  not  listen  to  any 
argument  in  favor  of  his  staying  in  school.  Finally  it  was  discovered 
that  he  was  interested  in  electrical  work.  He  was  told  then  that  if 
he  graduated  he  could  go  to  a  technical  school  and  take  an  electrical 
course.  So  he  decided  to  go  back  and  finish  the  eighth  grade.  In 
the  autumn,  however,  the  boy  appeared  at  the  Bureau  with  his 
father.  He  had  visions  of  not  making  his  grade,  and  had  decided 
that  he  might  as  well  quit  and  go  to  work.  He  was  again  persuaded 
to  go  to  school.  In  December,  the  mother  was  doubtful  if  she  could 
send  the  boy  to  high  school  after  graduation,  since  her  husband  had 
worked  irregularly  through  the  winter.  But  in  February,  when  the 
boy  was  graduated,  no  further  opposition  was  put  in  his  way  and  he 
went  on  to  a  technical  high  school. 

Sometimes  it  is  necessary  to  change  the  child  from  one  school  to 
another  in  order  that  he  may  receive  the  best  training  for  a  particular 
need.  For  instance,  an  unenlightened  teacher  advised  a  boy  to 
leave  school  "because  he  had  too  much  energy"  and  the  boy  came  to 
the  Bureau.  Though  he  had  completed  only  the  seventh  grade  at 
fourteen,  he  was  very  bright,  and  it  seemed  too  bad  to  turn  him 
loose  into  some  "blind  alley"  occupation.  So  he  was  advised  to 
enter  the  prevocational  class  at  a  technical  high  school.  There  he 
found  in  working  with  his  hands  an  outlet  for  his  surplus  energy, 
and  had  progressed  so  well  in  his  academic  studies  that  he  went  on 
with  some  high-school  courses. 

Another  child,  a  girl,  who  had  not  been  able  to  keep  up  with  her 
school  work  on  account  of  sickness,  had  become  discouraged  and  was 
about  to  leave  school.  Since  she  could  go  to  school  only  two  years 
longer,  she  needed  to  make  the  best  of  that  time  in  getting  practical 
training  and  was  consequently  sent  to  the  Lucy  Flower  Technical  School. 

Sometimes  persuasion  is  all  that  is  necessary  to  keep  a  child  in 
school  or  to  send  him  on  to  high  school,  but  hi  other  cases  it  is  necessary 


464     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 

to  provide  books  or  clothes  or  a  small  scholarship.  In  interview- 
ing children  who  were  graduating  at  the  mid-year,  it  was  found 
that  a  number  of  them  could  go  to  high  school  if  books  were  provided. 
Children  cannot  depend  upon  getting  books  from  school  funds.  One 
girl  who  entered  high  school  was  forced  to  dropout  at  the  end  of  the  first 
week  and  went  to  work  in  a  factory  because  she  could  not  secure 
"fund"  books.  In  a  single  day  six  boys  came  to  the  Bureau  who 
had  entered  high  school  but  had  to  leave  because  they  could  not 
afford  to  buy  books.  In  order  to  meet  this  need  for  school  books 
the  Bureau  has  established  a  loan-book  fund  which  in  one  term 
enabled  thirty  children  who  otherwise  would  have  been  compelled 
to  drop  out  to  continue  their  high-school  work.  A  free  textbook 
law  would  of  course  obviate  these  difficulties. 

During  the  year  1914-15,  sixty-eight  children  were  kept  in  school 
by  being  given  "scholarships,"  ranging  in  amount  from  50  cents 
a  week,  or  carfare,  in  some  cases,  to  $3 .  oo  a  week  in  others.  These 
"scholarships,"  which  were  provided  by  private  subscription,  have 
been  given  to  the  handicapped  or  physically  weak  children  who  are 
not  able  to  work,  yet  would  be  compelled  to  do  so  if  a  scholarship 
were  not  provided;  to  the  immigrant  children  who  would  have  a 
better  chance  if  they  could  go  to  school  a  while  longer  to  acquire 
a  better  knowledge  of  English ;  to  exceptionally  bright  children  who 
are  anxious  to  stay  in  school  and  who  might  make  rapid  progress  if 
given  an  opportunity. 

For  example,  late  in  the  summer  a  district  superintendent  sent 
to  the  Bureau  a  mother  and  her  daughter  who  had  inquired  concern- 
ing a  free  business  course.  The  girl  was  just  fourteen.  She  had 
graduated  from  grammar  school  in  June  with  a  high  average.  The 
mother,  a  widow,  who  supported  herself  and  her  daughter,  wanted 
to  send  the  girl  to  high  school,  but  found  that  she  could  not  afford 
it,  as  she  was  working  irregularly.  She  had  heard  of  a  business 
college  which  offered  free  instruction  for  six  months,  and  she  thought 
she  might  make  a  sacrifice  for  that  short  time.  The  girl  was  unusually 
ambitious,  her  teachers  spoke  well  of  her  ability,  and  it  seemed  unfair 
that  she  should  not  have  an  opportunity.  A  scholarship  of  ten 
dollars  a  month  was  secured  for  the  next  two  years,  and  the  girl  was 
enabled  to  enter  the  high  school  for  the  two-year  commercial  course. 


CHICAGO  EMPLOYMENT  SUPERVISION  BUREAU     465 

Another  girl  of  fourteen  was  sent  to  the  Bureau  for  employment. 
Her  mother  did  occasional  washings,  and  one  sister  earned  $7 . 50  a 
week.  There  were  two  other  children  in  school.  The  child  was 
undersized  and  pale  looking.  After  a  physical  examination  it  was 
found  that  she  had  tubercular  glands.  She  was  given  a  scholarship 
of  $10.00  a  month  and  sent  to  the  Franklin  Open  Air  School,  where 
she  has  made  good  progress. 

An  immigrant  girl  of  fourteen,  whose  father  was  dead,  had 
reached  the  third  grade  in  school,  though  she  had  been  in  this  country 
only  six  months.  She  was  bright  and  eager  and  was  anxious  to 
remain  in  school  so  that  she  might  learn  more  English.  A  scholar- 
ship of  $10. oo  a  month  was  provided  so  that  she  could  finish  the  year 
in  school.  At  the  end  of  the  term  she  was  transferred  to  the  Hull- 
House  Trade  School  to  learn  dressmaking. 

In  November,  1914,  a  girl  of  fourteen  applied  to  the  Bureau  for 
work.  She  was  valedictorian  of  her  class  which  had  graduated  in 
June,  and  she  had  hoped  that  she  might  go  to  high  school.  But  her 
father  had  met  with  an  accident  and  could  not  work  regularly,  and 
there  were  five  younger  children  to  be  supported.  A  scholarship  of 
$8 .  oo  a  month  was  provided,  which  enabled  her  to  go  to  high  school. 
Though  she  was  two  months  late  in  entering  she  made  up  her  work, 
and  her  average  for  the  first  semester  was  over  95  per  cent. 

The  Bureau  tries  so  far  as  possible  to  place  the  children  to  whom 
scholarships  are  given  in  schools  and  classes  where  they  will  receive 
practical  training  that  will  prepare  them  for  some  special  line  of  work. 
Those  in  the  high  schools  generally  take  the  commercial  or  vocational 
courses.  One  has,  however,  been  enrolled  to  take  the  general  course 
in  the  hope  of  becoming  a  health  officer,  and  another  is  determined  to 
go  to  college.  Experience  with  these  children  confirms  the  testimony 
which  can  be  got  from  many  sources  that  accepting  "lawful  employ- 
ment" as  a  substitute  for  school  attendance  means  great  loss  to  the 
children  and  to  the  community,  to  the  children  who  are  allowed  to 
enter  without  preparation  a  labor  market  which  has  no  real  need  for 
them,  to  the  community  which  needs  the  labor  of  men  and  women 
of  well-developed  bodies  and  trained  minds. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Absences :  classification  of  causes  of, 
128,  179;  consecutive  and  ir- 
regular, 110-20.  See  also  Non- 
attendance. 

Addams,  Jane,  72,  458. 

Age-and-school  certificates,  88,  296, 
318;  Issuing  Bureau  for,  320,  458. 
See  also  Employment  certificates. 

Agents,   attendance,    57.    See  also 

Truant  officers. 
Altgeld,  Governor,  72,  73. 
Alton  Glass  Works,  child  labor  in, 

416. 

Attendance.  See  School  attendance. 

Bancroft,    History    of  Constitution, 

quoted,  19. 

Bilingual  schools.    See  Schools. 
Birth- registration,  289,  312. 
Blackstone,  Commentaries,  quoted,  6. 

Brace,  C.  L.,  Dangerous  Classes  in 
New  York,  quoted,  43. 

Bridewell,  203,  204,  207,  208. 

Care  committees,  227. 

Census.     See  School  census. 

Chicago  Board  of  Education,  42 
note,  44,  63,  65,  76,  77,  148,  165, 
166,  167,  203,  219,  408-9,  447; 
extracts  from  publications  of, 
389-401;  failure  to  co-operate 
with  state  factory  inspectors,  78; 
recommendations  with  regard  to 
compulsory  education  laws,  53- 
58,  60,  63,  70-71,  79-81,  85.  See 
also  Child  Study  Department; 
Compulsory  Education  Depart- 
ment. 

Chicago  Health  Department,  132; 
Child  Hygiene  Division  of,  178, 
243;  medical  examination  of 
school  children  by,  177-80,  243. 


Chicago  House  of  Correction.  See 
Bridewell. 

Chicago  Parental  School.  See 
Schools. 

Chicago  population:  congestion  of, 
120;  nationalities  in,  264. 

Chicago  Woman's  Club,  55,  63,  230, 
457- 

Child  Hygiene,  Division  of,  178,  243. 

Child  labor,  44,  59,  74,  295,  299, 300, 
303, 402-30;  and  compulsory  edu- 
cation, 51,  69-88,  285,  303,  312, 
347,  440-46;  and  crime,  55,  76, 
79,  85  note,  351;  and  poverty, 
269,  330-32;  extent  of,  in  Illinois, 
in  1893-95,  414-16;  hours  of,  88, 
324,416-19,443,445;  permissible 
for  children  necessarily  employed, 
lo-n,  66,  69,  319-31,  347;  pres- 
ent extent  of,  in  Illinois,  324-29, 
345- 

Child  labor  bill,  federal,  288. 

Child  labor  legislation  in  Illinois,  69- 
88,  285,  317,  318,  440-46;  first 
general  law,  69;  laws  of  1877, 
1879,  and  1883,  50;  law  of  1891, 
69;  law  of  1893,  72,  74,  299,  325; 
law  of  1897,  74,  84;  law  of  1903, 
88. 

Child  labor  legislation  in  the  United 
States,  287-88. 

Child  Study  Department,  Chicago 
Board  of  Education,  183,  221,  243, 
303,  334- 

Children's  Bureau,  285-86,  287, 
309-14,  339-41. 

Compulsory  education:  and  poverty 
(see  Poverty);  changes  suggested 
in  system  of,  298,  308,  346,  350; 
history  of,  in  Illinois,  17-88,  354- 
401;  legal  aspects  of,  1-16;  legis- 
lation, 51,  53-88,  167,  200-10, 


467 


468    TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


284-85,  287-315,  420,  438,  440- 
46;  need  of,  for  children  between 
fourteen  and  sixteen,  317-45; 
special  Board  of  Education  com- 
mittees on,  56-57,  60,  63,  64,  70- 
71,  79-81,  85. 

Compulsory  Education  Department, 
Chicago  Board  of  Education,  10, 
n,  13,  61,  77,  79,  80,  81,  89-92, 
105,  131,  145,  148,  149,  151,  154- 
56,  175,  176,  182,  193,  201-204, 

209,  215,  2l6,  217,  222,  223,  237, 
244,  245,  266,  272,  277,  292,  293, 
318,320,322,  323,327,  421. 

Compulsory  school  attendance,  4,  8, 
40,  46,  50,  287,  376,  380;  age  of 
beginning,  316,  348;  raising  the 
age  of,  317-45,  348.  See  also 
Compulsory  education. 

Connecticut  employment  certificate 
system,  285-86,  309-14,  339-41. 

Constitutional  Convention  of  1870, 

45- 
Consumers'  League  of  Illinois,  290. 

Continuation  schools.    See  Schools. 

Cook,  John  W.,  Educational  History 
of  Illinois,  quoted,  22,  29,  42  note. 

County  agent,  137,  138,  158. 

County  Court,  12,  290. 

Court.  See  County;  Domestic  Re- 
lations; Juvenile;  Municipal. 

Crime:  and  child  labor,  55,  76,  79, 
85  note,  351;  and  illiteracy,  52. 
See  also  Delinquency. 

Defective  children,  177-88. 

Degraded  homes,  143-45. 

Delinquency,  truancy  in  relation  to, 
163-64,  189-99.  See  also  Crime; 
Wayward  children. 

Delinquent  Child  and  the  Home,  6,  8, 
124,  145,  176,  267. 

Delinquent  girls,  145,  176. 

Dependency,  truancy  in  relation  to, 
189-99.  See  also  Poverty. 

Domestic  Relations  Court,  n,  13, 
203,  204,  205.  , 


Dore,  John  C.,  41. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  26. 

Duncan,  Governor  Joseph,  28. 

Economic  status.     See  Poverty. 

Education:  Convention  of  Friends 
of,  29,  30,  32-36;  free  (see 
Schools);  Illinois  Society,  31; 
land  grants  for,  i,  2, 19-21,  24-25; 
minimum  standard  of,  for  working 
children,  303,  312-14,  425;  neces- 
sity for  the  right  to,  5,  14,  381, 
387;  opposition  to  American  sys- 
tem of,  5;  secular  v.  state  control 
°f>  3,  5J  systems  of  public,  2. 

Educational  Commission  of  Chicago 
(1898),  85. 

Educational  Convention  of  Illinois, 
26. 

Educational  test  for  working  papers. 
See  Literacy. 

Edwards,  Ninian  W.,  38. 

Ellis  Island,  269,  274. 

Employment  certificates,  287-316, 
320,339;  educational  test  for,  83, 
279,  303-8,  347, .  43°;  for  all 
minors,  295;  minimum  age  for, 
312,317-45;  physical  fitness  as  a 
test  for,  73,  83,  298-303,  308,  314- 
15,  347,  402-5,  419-20;  proof  of 
age  for,  288-97,  311;  state  control 
of,  308-10,  347.  See  also  Age- 
and-school  certificates. 

Employment  Supervision  Bureau, 
230,  319-20,  326-29,  332-33,  335, 
338, 345,  349,  350,  351, 455-65. 

"Enabling  Act,"  1818,  20 

Evening  schools,  65,  303. 

Factory  inspectors,  73-78,  292,  310, 
318,324;  annual  reports  of,  402-30. 

Ford,  Governor  Thomas,  22,  33. 

Free  schools.    See  Schools. 

French,  Governor,  36. 

Freund,  Professor  E.,  The  Police 
Power,  quoted,  4,  6,  8,  9. 

Friends  of  Education.  See  Educa- 
tion. 


INDEX 


469 


Harrison,  Mayor,  85. 

Health  Department,  Chicago.  See 
Chicago  Health  Department. 

Holden  School,  94,  102. 

Hours  of  labor.    See  Child  labor. 

"  Housing  Problem  in  Chicago,"  120. 

Hull-House,  50,  71-72,  236,  277. 

Hull-House  Trade  School,  293,  302, 
458,  465- 

Hygiene,  Division  of  Child,  178,  243. 

Illinois  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics, 
5°,  51,  52,  72. 

Illinois  Education  Society,  31. 

Illinois  Superintendent  of  Common 
Schools,  34-35,  37- 

Illinois  Superintendent  of  Public  In- 
struction, reports  of,  22,  26,  27, 
28,  3°,  31,  38,  4i,  44,  45,  47-48, 
53,68. 

Illiteracy  among  working  children, 
75, 81-82, 349, 405-6, 423-24, 425- 

Immigrant  children,  101,  121-22, 
128,  264-86,  331,  333-35,  351- 

Immigrants'  Protective  League, 
269-72. 

Immigration  Commission  of  Massa- 
chusetts, 265,  267,  281-85. 

Immigration  Commission  of  New 
York,  267. 

Industrial  Schools  Act,  256. 

Jackson  School,  94,  102. 

John  Worthy  School,  194,  198,  199. 

Johnson,  Harriet,  229  note. 

Jones  School,  94,  102,  230,  458. 

Juvenile  Court  of  Cook  County, 
131-32,  149,  166,  173,  181,  241, 
242,  245;  immigrants  in,  266; 
jurisdiction  of,  12,  13;  law,  86, 
145,  210;  number  of  children 
brought  into,  92,  150-56,  176, 
190-91,205;  pension  department 
of,  133  (see  also  Widows' pensions) ; 
use  of,  in  outlying  towns,  246,  250, 
256;  working  papers  investigated 
by,  288,  290-91. 


Juvenile  labor  exchanges,  344.  See 
also  Employment  supervision. 

Juvenile  Protective  Association, 
232-35,  242,  243. 

Keith  School,  94,  102. 

Kelley,  Mrs.  Florence,  72-84,  299, 
402. 

Kindergarten  system,  proposed  ex- 
tension of,  80. 

Knight,  George  W.,  Land  Grants  for 
Education,  quoted,  20-22,  25. 

Kosciuszko  School,  94,  102. 

Kozminski,  Charles,  54. 

Labor  certificates.  See  Employment 
certificates. 

Land  grants  for  education,  i,  2,  19- 
21,  24-25. 

Legislation.    See  under  Compulsory 

education;   Child  labor;   Schools. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  28. 
Literacy  test  for  working  children, 

83,  279,  303-8,  347,  430. 
Lucy  Flower  Technical  High  School, 

458,  459,  463- 
McMaster,  History  of  the  American 

People,  quoted,  18. 

Massachusetts  Board  of  Education 
Reports,  quoted,  214,  224. 

Massachusetts  Immigration  Com- 
mission, 265,  267,  281-85. 

Matteson,  Governor,  37,  40. 

Medical  certificate  clause  of  child 
labor  law,  403-4,  419.  See  also 
Physical  fitness. 

Medical  inspection,  177-79,  243. 

"Mendicant  and  acrobatic  act,"  50 

note. 

Mental  deficiency,  180,  314. 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  Essay  on  Liberty, 

quoted,  3,  6. 

Mines,  child  labor  in,  50-51. 
Moseley  School,  94,  102. 
Mothers'    pensions.    See    Widows' 

pensions. 


470     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


Municipal  Court,  Chicago,  n,  12, 
132,  149,  176,  200-210,  320,  322. 

Municipal  Tuberculosis  Sanitarium, 
231. 

New  York  Public  Education  Asso- 
ciation, 228-29. 

New  York  School  Inquiry  Commis- 
sion, quoted,  182-83,  244. 

New  York  State  Commission  on  Im- 
migration, 267. 

New  York  State  Education  Depart- 
ment, quoted,  15,  213-15,  263. 

Non-attendance:  and  habitual  tru- 
ancy, 148-64;  and  poverty  (see 
Poverty);  causes  of,  128-47;  dis- 
tinction between  truancy  and,  93; 
evil  of,  44,  47,  377,  380;  extent  of, 
in  nine  Chicago  schools,  89-100, 
in  two  Chicago  schools,  114-27,  in 
the  Chicago  suburbs,  245-63;  in 
relation  to  mental  and  physical 
defects,  177-88;  suspension  as  a 
remedy  for,  43,  49,  76-77,  165, 
219;  transfer  system  as  a  factor 
in,  101-13;  visiting  teacher  as  a 
remedy  for,  187,  226-44.  See  also 
Absences. 

Northwest  Territory,  19. 

Nurses:  school,  178,  180,  227,  243; 

visiting,  131,  134,  135,  231,  236. 
Open-air  schools.    See  Schools. 
Ordinance  of  1785,  19. 
Parental  rights,  theory  of,  6,  7,  10, 

387- 

Parental  School.    See  Schools. 
Parents,  prosecution  of,  8,   11-13, 

54,  63,  65,  77,  78,  85,  149,  176, 

2OO-IO,    226,   255-56,  422. 

Parochial  schools.    See  Schools. 

Physical  defects  of  school  children, 
177-88. 

Physical  fitness  as  a  test  for  working 
papers.  See  Employment  certifi- 
cates. 

Pillsbury,  W.  L.,  Early  Education  in 
Illinois,  quoted,  26. 


Pontiac  Reformatory,  52,  196. 

Poor  Law  Commission  of  1909,  in 
England,  348,  351. 

Poverty:  and  child  labor,  269,  330- 
32;  and  compulsory  education, 
63-64,  70,  123-27,  128-39,  158, 

235-36,321,330-32,352-53-    See 
also  Dependency. 

Private  schools.    See  Schools. 

Public    Education    Association    of 

New  York,  228-29. 
Public  schools.    See  Schools. 
"Ragged  schools."    See  Schools. 

Retardation   of  truant  children, 

180-82. 
Sadler,  M.  E.,  Continuation  Schools 

in  England  and  Elsewhere,  quoted, 

342-43- 

Scholarship  Committee,  302. 
Scholarships  for  children  of  working 

age,  293,  302,  458. 

School  attendance,  9,  10,  42,  65,  94; 
exemption  from,  317-45;  statis- 
tics relating  to,  447-54.  See 
also  Compulsory  school  attend- 
ance. 

School  census,  76,  211-25,  327>  35°, 
423,  447,450-51,454. 

School  Children's  Aid  Society,  64. 

School  funds,  22  note,  212,  216,  223, 
263,  347,  362-63,  433,  436.  See 
also  Land  grants;  School  tax. 

School  nurses.    See  Nurses. 

School  tax,  5,  22-25,  29-38,  45,  52, 
363-67,  369-71,  374-76. 

Schools:  bilingual,  67-68,  81,  279- 
85;  continuation,  342-44,  348, 
349;  evening,  65,  303;  free,  17- 
39,  45,  354-88,  431;  open-air, 
227,299-302;  parental, 9  note,  10, 
12, 13,  62, 85-87, 144, 146, 149-63, 
165-76,  183-87,  191-99,  201,  205, 
226,  242,  245,  322,  347,  350,  455; 
parochial,  4,  66-68,  274,  279-80, 
451-54;  private,  4,  68,  91;  public, 
4,  see  also  free;  "ragged,"  43. 


INDEX 


Settlements,  229,  241,  242,  319,  330, 
457.  See  also  Hull-House. 

Skinner  School,  94,  102. 

Statistics  of :  absences,  93 , 95 , 1 7 7-78 ; 
child  labor,  70,  325-38;  Juvenile 
Protective  Association  on  school 
cases,  232;  parochial  schools, 
280;  population  in  Chicago,  120, 
264-65;  prosecutions  of  parents, 
12,  204-6;  school  attendance,  in 
Chicago,  42,  65,  99-100,  390, 
447-54,  in  Illinois,  40-41,  51,  375; 
school  funds,  2,  375;  transfers, 
101,  102,  106;  truant  officers,  62, 
65,  66,  226;  visiting  teacher's 
work  in  New  York,  228.  See  also 
Tables. 

Stephen,  Sir  James  Fitzjames,  14. 

Street  trades,  60,  74,  410. 

Subnormal  children,  335. 

Subnormal  rooms,  181,  186,  188, 
335- 

Suspension  as  a  remedy  for  non- 
attendance,  43,  49,  76-77,  165, 
219. 

Sweat  shops,  investigation  of,  72, 
415- 

Tables  relating  to:  absences,  97,  98, 
107,  115,  118,  119,  causes  of,  129, 
179;  age  and  grade  of  truant  boys, 
152,  181;  age  and  school  certifi- 
cates, 307;  child  wage-earners, 
326-27;  economic  status  of  fam- 
ilies, 125,  158;  elementary  schools, 
cost  of  maintenance,  174;  enrol- 
ment in  all  Chicago  schools,  217, 
in  nine  schools,  96,  in  parochial 
schools,  452-54,  in  public  schools, 
448-49,  452-54,  in  two  schools, 
115;  immigrant  children,  attend- 
ance of,  270,  number  manifested, 
271-72;  Juvenile  Court,  truant 
children  brought  into,  150,  153, 
155,  181;  language  of  home,  122, 
123;  nativity  of  parents,  121; 
non-attendance,  reasons  for,  129; 
Parental  School,  153,156,158, 169, 
174, 184,  185, 190;  parental  status 
of  truants,  126,  159;  physical  and 


mental  condition  of  truant  boys, 
184,  185;  prosecutions  and  warn- 
ing notices,  202;  school  census, 
217;  transferred  children,  107; 
truant  officers,  children  reported 
to,  90;  truants,  150,  152,  156, 
175,  181,  190. 

Taxation  for  support  of  education. 
See  School  tax. 

Tennyson  School,  94,  102. 

Thomas  School,  94,  102. 

Transfer  system  as  a  factor  in  non- 
attendance,  101-13. 

Truancy:  and  dependency  and  de- 
linquency, 189-99;  and  mental 
and  physical  defects  of  school 
children,  177-88;  definition  of, 
148;  extent  of,  89-100,  396-99; 
important  factors  in  problem  of, 
158;  in  the  Chicago  suburbs  and 
other  parts  of  Illinois,  245-63; 
need  of  state  agency  for,  263; 
prosecution  of  defiant  parents  in 
case  of  (see  Parents,  prosecution 
of). 

Truant:  from  comfortable  home, 
1 60;  habitual,  and  schoolroom  in- 
corrigible, 148-64;  provision  for, 
outside  of  Chicago,  245;  record- 
keeping  of,  252. 

Truant  girl,  129,  148,  150,  153,  176, 
205-6,  350,  457. 

Truant  officers,  12, 13,62,65,66,  82, 
90,  148,  166,  202,  224,  226,  244, 
269,  421;  in  outlying  towns  of 
Illinois,  245,  249-51,  259-62, 
276. 

Truant  rooms,  172-73,  219. 

Truant  schools.  See  Schools,  pa- 
rental. 

United  Charities  of  Chicago,  n, 
*3*-3S,  158,  234-40,  277-79,  291, 
307,  457- 

United  States  Bureau  of  Education, 

211. 

United  States  Commissioner-General 
of  Immigration,  265,  351. 


472     TRUANCY  AND  NON-ATTENDANCE  IN  CHICAGO 


United  States  Commissioner  of  Edu- 
cation, 2. 

Visiting  NursesAssociatidn,  131, 231. 
See  also  Nurses. 

Visiting  teacher,  a  remedy  for  tru- 
ancy and  non-attendance,  187, 
226-44;  in  New  York,  228-29. 

Vocational  guidance.  See  Employ- 
ment Supervision  Bureau. 

Vocational  Supervision  Bureau.  See 
Employment  Supervision  Bureau. 
Washburne  School,  457. 


Waywar    children,  43, 61,62,  71,  76, 

147        3.    See  also  Delinquency. 
Webb,  Sidney,  quoted,  7  note. 
Widows'   pensions,    133,   139,   232, 

240,  302,  331. 
Woolley  and   Fischer,   Mental  and 

Physical  Measurements  of  Working 

Children,  314-15. 

Working  children.    See  Child  labor. 
Working  papers.    See  Employment 

certificates. 
Young,Mrs.EllaFlagg,i88, 458,460. 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


QL    APR  19 1989 


«£C'OUH«i     APR  24  9» 

SRLF     *EC'D17 

2  WEEK  .  JAN  J 

^flte 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONALUBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  096  436     1 


3  1158  00739  0718 


